Frost Institute for Data Science & Computing

Big Data, Business, and the Pandemic
2020-12-03 15:00 - 16:30 UTC | Zoom (online)
Big data, data analytics, advanced computing, and algorithms are rapidly and profoundly changing every sphere of human activity. Advanced computing gives us the ability to reliably and cost effectively store petabytes of data; and machine learning algorithms can crunch through massive datasets in real time to extract business intelligence and socially relevant information, giving firms new marketing tools, like mobile geo-social targeting.

These tools have also empowered customers, making them more savvy in their interactions with business. The businesses, nonprofits, health care providers, government agencies, entrepreneurs, and educational institutions that harness these trends have an historic opportunity to gain an advantage over their competitors. However, the current pandemic poses new challenges to business at all levels and offers both perils and promises for the future. This conference will address issues at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence, and business, given the current state of the global crisis. The 5th Annual Big Data Conference focuses on Big Data, Business, and the Pandemic and gathers industry leaders to address these topics:

How is the pandemic affecting, both positively and negatively, businesses in diverse industries?
How has big data and AI technologies helped businesses in the challenges that they faced because of the pandemic?
How do our panelists see their business model change in the post-pandemic world?
What role will data science/AI technologies have in that post pandemic business model?

Join us on Thursday, December 3 for an in-depth discussion, with some of the top leaders in innovation, business, and technology from local, national, and international arenas. This year’s Keynote Speaker is Manos Spanos, Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing for the yogurt business unit at Danone, North America.

Keynote
Manos Spanos, Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing, Yogurt Business Unit | Danone, North America
Manos Spanos leads the marketing efforts for such brands as Activia, Dannon, Danimals, Light & Fit, Oikos, Two Good, and more. Previously at Danone, Mr. Spanos was SVP of the Marketing Center of Excellence and led a cross-functional team that included media, insights, analytics, consumer engagement, and design. Prior to Danone, Mr. Spanos worked at PepsiCo, where his last role was marketing VP of flavors and energy drinks. Mr. Spanos is an alumnus of Hartwick College of New York, with a bachelor’s in management and an MBA in marketing from the University of Miami.
TALK “Brand Story Telling in the Age of AI”
Marketing technology, and particularly, the use of AI in leveraging Big Data, is a trend that has been building progressively over the last few years . . . However, recently, we see a significant acceleration in both the interest from Marketers and the solutions that are being offered. This can be attributed to the technological advancements and the coming regulatory environment/changes (i.e. cookieless world), as well as the fast shift towards digital that the Pandemic has accelerated. In this discussion, we will take a look into some practical applications of AI Marketing technology in Brand Storytelling for Danone that are helping us drive significant growth!

Thursday, December 3, 2020 | 3:00-5:00 PM • Register Now

Moderator
Pete Martinez
Chairman and CEO | Game Changer Tec and SIVOTEC Analytics
This year’s Big Data Conference moderator will be Pete Martinez. Mr. Martinez serves as Chairman and CEO of Game Changer Tec, LLC and SIVOTEC Analytics; high innovation enterprises at the intersection of sports, health, technology, and big data analytics.

Panelists
The Big Data 2020 panelists will discuss how organization has changed, what the perils and promises are in a virtual environment, and, working in enterprise AI and data science during a global pandemic. Panelists announced so far include:

Athina Hadjixenofontos, PhD
Data Science Manager, Quantitative Analytics Manager
Wells Fargo | Athina is a data scientist with extensive experience with large datasets and complex study designs typical of statistical genetics. She is experienced with text, financial, genomic, and image data, and is passionate about effective study design and the clear communication of technical results.

Christine Johnson
Vice President, Innovation, Economic Development
The Beacon Council | Christine leads recruitment, retention, and expansion efforts for the technology and innovation sector, supporting the entrepreneurial landscapes by leveraging resources and brokering relationships to foster community growth.

Ashwin Kumar
Associate VP, Revenue Cycle Management
Jackson Health System | Ashwin creates complex tech-enabled solutions to drive process improvement and growth in all revenue cycle areas, including health information management, patient access, clinical documentation improvement, revenue integrity, and denials management,

Travis Montague
Founder and CEO, Holler | Travis leads a top-notch team of animators and AI scientists in building Holler, the next-generation messaging experience. He’s been included in Forbes 30 Under 30, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Most Daring Entrepreneurs, and has led Holler to a place on Fast Company’s 2020 Most Innovative Companies List for developing greater emotional expression in today’s digital conversations. He is passionate about enhancing digital communication with creativity and technology, and has taken the stage at Cannes Lions, CES, Social Media Week, Advertising Week, SXSW and Harvard Business School to ignite conversations on the topic.

Yelena Yesha, PhD
Chief Innovation Officer, and Head, International Relations
UM Institute for Data Science and Computing | In her IDSC roles, Dr. Yesha assists faculty in engaging government and industrial partners to collaborate with the University, and consults faculty on developing research ideas into innovations. Dr. Yesha is also a tenured Distinguished University Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and, she is the Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA).

Agenda
3:00 PM Welcome Address and Keynote
3:25 PM Big Data Poster Presentations
3:50 PM Panel Discussion
4:40 PM Virtual Happy Hour

Co-Sponsors

Conference Organizers

Joseph Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor | Miami Herbert Business School

Michael Mannino, PhD, Director of Engagement | UM IDSC

Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD, Professor | UM Department of Computer Science and Director | AI + Machine Learning, IDSC

Meet A Data Scientist-Tim Norris
2020-12-09 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
If you have ever wondered what data scientists do, the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) is giving you an opportunity to learn about this important, multifaceted profession. On December 9, at 4:00 PM, IDSC is hosting the third in the series of “Meet a Data Scientist” talks with Data Scientist Tim Norris, PhD.

As a Data Scientist with a joint appointment between the Library and IDSC, Tim’s interest lies in studying the flow of data throughout the entire research cycle from inception of the research question to the publication and preservation of the results.
“This exciting new series will introduce the people behind the data, their lives, interests, and career choices,” said Nick Tsinoremas, PhD, IDSC director, vice provost for research computing and data, and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, computer science, and health informatics. “This is a great opportunity to understand how these professionals use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields.”
Here is the schedule of “Meet a Data Scientist” virtual talks held on Zoom from 4:00-5:00 PM. These events are free and open to the public.
Alberto Cairo, November 4, 2020 | (Post-event summary)
Ben Kirtman , November 18, 2020 | Post-event summary)
Tim Norris, December 9, 2020 | (Post-event summary)
Ken Goodman, January 14, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)
Yelena Yesha, January 27, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)
Tim’s own research focuses on geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data visualizations (cartography), participatory research methodologies, and how the sustainable governance of human, natural and informational resources intersect. The outcome of this work is to better understand the curation, management and governance of data resources and assets in research institutions at scales from local to global. This work forms part of a larger inter-disciplinary effort to provide data management services and support for digital scholarship at the University of Miami and beyond.
Prior to arriving at the University of Miami Dr. Norris’ doctoral work focused on community based mapping and participatory research methods as tools to mediate public/private relationships centered on the management and governance of natural resources in the global south. Tim holds a PhD in Environmental Studies (a.k.a. geography and a little ecology) from the University of California Santa Cruz; his doctoral work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. In another life, Dr. Norris was a GIS technician and data curator for the University of California Industry-University Cooperative Research Program.

Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series presents Deborah Stone 12/10
2020-12-10 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
IDSC is pleased to announce the second distinguished lecture in the Data Citizens series, scholar and author Deborah Stone, PhD. Professor Emerita at Brandeis University, Dr. Stone is a political scientist whose work spans public policy, sociology, philosophy, and law. Dr. Stone has taught at M.I.T., Duke, Yale, and Aarhus University in Denmark, in addition to Brandeis. Her widely acclaimed textbook, Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, explores the squishy but often unacknowledged values, stories, and psychology that drive policymaking and analysis. She has written extensively on health policy, disability, caregiving, and altruism—or lack of it—in politics. Dr. Stone will talk about her new book, Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters.
Register Now | Thursday 12/10/2020 4:00-5:30 PM via Zoom
TALK Title: “There’s No Such Thing as a Raw Number”
The word “data” has come to be synonymous with numbers. When policymakers demand evidence, they mean numbers. Numbers have become our truth meters because most people think they’re more objective than words and stories. But if we look closely at where numbers come from, even kindergarten-level counting requires humans to make judgments about what counts as the thing they’re counting. Move on to more complicated and contentious concepts such as unemployment, gender violence, crime risk, or Covid deaths, and the possibilities for subjectivity and power plays mushroom. Counting and measurement are tremendously useful tools, but we should be wary of relying of them to resolve political conflicts and moral dilemmas.

Advanced Computing User Community Town Hall
2020-12-15 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
IDSC is broadening its computational resources and services. We invite you to attend a Town Hall specifically for the advanced computing user community.
This User Community Town Hall will focus on the IDSC service unit business model and will introduce newly established subsidy programs designed to help the heavy user as well as the uninitiated.
Register Now | Tuesday, December 15, 2020, 4:00-5:00 PM

Meet A Data Scientist-Ken Goodman
2021-01-13 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
If you have ever wondered what data scientists do, IDSC is giving you an opportunity to learn about this important, multifaceted profession. On January 13, IDSC is hosting the fourth in the series of “Meet a Data Scientist” talks with Data Scientist Ken Goodman, PhD, Director, IDSC Data Ethics and Society, Co-Director of the University’s Ethics Programs, and Founder and Director of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy. The Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy has been designated a World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Ethics and Global Health Policy, one of ten in the world.
Dr. Goodman is a Co-Founder of the North American Center for Ethics and Health Information Technology, a partnership with the Center for Bioethics at Indiana University. He is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami with appointments in the Department of Philosophy, Department of Health Informatics, Department of Public Health Sciences, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Department of Anesthesiology.
He is a past Chair of the Ethics Committee of AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association), for which organization he co-founded the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Working Group. He has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI). He is also a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology (FACE), and past chair of its Ethics Committee.
Dr. Goodman directs the Florida Bioethics Network and chairs the UHealth/University of Miami Hospital Ethics Committee and the Adult Ethics Committee for Jackson Memorial Health System.
His research has emphasized issues in health information technology and in epidemiology and public health. His latest book, Ethics, Medicine, and Information Technology: Intelligent Machines and the Transformation of Health Care (Cambridge University Press 2016) identifies and analyzes a number of issues in biomedical informatics. He has edited a book on the Terri Schiavo case for Oxford University Press, published a book about ethics and evidence-based medicine for Cambridge University Press, co-authored a book of case studies in ethics and health computing for Springer-Verlag, and co-authored another volume of case studies, in ethics in public health, for the American Public Health Association.
He has also co-authored a book on artificial intelligence, edited a book on ethics and medical computing, co-edited a volume on artificial intelligence, and published and presented numerous papers in bioethics, including end-of-life care, the philosophy of science, and computing. [PubMed]
“This exciting new series will introduce the people behind the data, their lives, interests, and career choices,” said Nick Tsinoremas, PhD, IDSC director, vice provost for research computing and data, and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, computer science, and health informatics. “This is a great opportunity to understand how these professionals use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields.”
Here is the schedule of “Meet a Data Scientist” virtual talks held on Zoom from 4:00-5:00 PM. These events are free and open to the public.
Alberto Cairo, November 4, 2020 | (Post-event summary)
Ben Kirtman , November 18, 2020 | Post-event summary)
Tim Norris, December 9, 2020 | (Post-event summary)
Ken Goodman, January 14, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)
Yelena Yesha, January 27, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)

Meet A Data Scientist-Yelena Yesha
2021-01-27 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
If you have ever wondered what data scientists do, the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) is giving you an opportunity to learn about this important, multifaceted profession. On Wednesday, January 27, 2021, IDSC is hosting the fifth session in the “Meet a Data Scientist” series with Yelena Yesha, PhD, a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Miami Computer Science Department, and Chief Innovation Officer and Head, International Relations for IDSC.

TALK TITLE: “Data Science: A Paradigm of Actionable Knowledge” Click for Video and Summary
“This exciting new series will introduce the people behind the data, their lives, interests, and career choices,” said Nick Tsinoremas, PhD, IDSC director, vice provost for research computing and data, and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, computer science, and health informatics. “This is a great opportunity to understand how these professionals use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields.”
Here is the schedule of “Meet a Data Scientist” virtual talks held on Zoom from 4:00-5:00 PM:
Alberto Cairo, November 4, 2020 | (Post-event summary below.)
Ben Kirtman , November 18, 2020 | Post-event summary below.)
Tim Norris, December 9, 2020 | (Post-event summary below.)
Ken Goodman, January 14, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)
Yelena Yesha, January 27, 2021 | (Post-event video and summary here.)
Mitsu Ogihara, Rescheduled | DATE FORTHCOMING

In her IDSC roles, Dr. Yesha assists faculty in engaging government and industrial partners to collaborate with the University, and consults faculty on developing research ideas into innovations.
Dr. Yesha is also a tenured Distinguished University Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and, she is the Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA). She received her B.Sc. degrees in Computer Science and in Applied Mathematics from York University, Toronto, Canada, in 1984, and her M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in 1986 and 1989, respectively.
Dr. Yesha has published 11 books as author or editor, and more than 200 papers in prestigious refereed journals and refereed conference proceedings, and she has been awarded external funding in a total amount exceeding 40 million dollars. She is currently working with leading industrial companies and government agencies on new innovative technology in the areas of cybersecurity and big data analytics with applications to electronic commerce, climate change, and health. Dr. Yesha is a fellow of the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies.
Forbes magazine looked at Dr. Yesha’s accomplishments in technology in a two-part profile: Part I: Dr. Yelena Yesha: Meet The Tenacious Pioneer Pushing Innovation To Address Real World Problems and Part II: Dr. Yelena Yesha: Pushing Technology Boundaries To Solve The World’s Biggest Problems.

Past Sessions:
>YELENA YESHA 1/27/2021 Click for Video and Summary. TALK TITLE: “Data Science: A Paradigm of Actionable Knowledge”

>KEN GOODMAN 1/14/2021 Click for Video and Summary. TALK TITLE: “Data Science + Ethics – UM’s Role in the New Research”

>TIM NORRIS 12/9/2020 TALK TITLE: “Data Science + Ethics – UM’s Role in the New Research”
Opening with a parallel to the writings of Enlightenment-era thinker John Locke on the changes in property and governance and shift to capitalism at that time as it relates to data science in making today’s world a better place, self-described “bit pusher” Tim Norris shared his fascinating journey into a career as an “embedded data curator.”
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Tim is passionate about making data more useful, sharing it, and not storing it away; It’s important that we curate the data and tell stories with it. In this commonly used DIKW pyramid representation, the base layer “the World” was missing—he added it—as it helps to illustrate his objection to the term “information ecosystem” because that takes away “the world”. He was taught Statistics by a Buddhist monk who emphasized that your interpretation of the data is what counts the most.

In this vein, he offered this quote:

Tim’s fascinating career in mapmaking data evolved as did the technology used. He learned that the data doesn’t tell the story. Humans tell the story. “It takes a certain amount of understanding of data to manipulate it and communicate the results.” The current global governance tendency toward open data is great but there are still many obstacles to data sharing.

The Q and A touched on the “So what?!” of working with data and who benefits from data extracted from us as we go about our lives. Data is a public good, but who should pay for the costs of gathering and processing it? A data tax maybe?

Tim recommended everyone watch The Social Dilemma (currently on Netflix).
He also noted that Wall Street’s Standard & Poor’s is now the “world’s largest, global resource for index-based concepts, data, and research.”

Click here for Tim’s full Powerpoint presentation (use arrow keys to navigate). Here is his github profile.

>BEN KIRTMAN 11/18/2020
The second talk featured Dr. Ben Kirtman, a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Dr. Kirtman uses atmosphere-ocean general circulation models to study the predictability and variability of the Earth’s climate system. Dr. Kirtman also teaches graduate courses on the general circulation of the atmosphere and El Niño/Southern Oscillation, and climate prediction and predictability. Originally from Santa Barbara, California, Dr. Kirtman shared a funny story about his early start with computers and his (harmless) hacking efforts that got also his [also brilliant] Dad in a little ‘hot water’. Relating subsequently having to monitor flooding in his basement (related to El Niño) as a punishment, he’s come a long way! He’s understandably proud of the fact that the University of Miami has been the lead in the multi-agency, multi-institutional effort to improve NOAA’s seasonal and sub-seasonal operative forecasts since 2015. His NMME (North-American Multi-Model Ensemble, on the chart below in light pink NCAR_CCSM4) forecasting system consists of coupled models from US modeling centers including NOAA/NCEP, NOAA/GFDL, IRI, NCAR, NASA, and from Canada’s modeling center. It has proven extremely effective at quantifying prediction uncertainty due to uncertainty in model formulation, and has proven to produce better prediction quality (on average) than any single model ensemble.

The talk went from touching on the disparate data sources that go into forecasting El Niño and La Niña, to using machine learning to capture the Gulfstream’s interactions with the atmosphere (parameterization/parametrization), and ended with questions from the audience on the future of machine learning in climate prediction.

Dr, Kirtman concluded with emphasizing that “What question are you trying to solve?” should drive what data/methods you use. He conveyed that new climate model(s) will be a blend with machine learning, which may lead to breakthroughs on how models work.

Dr. Kirtman also teaches dynamic meteorology and atmospheric thermodynamics to undergraduates, and he mentors graduate students in the Meteorology and Physical Oceanography graduate program, as well as post-doctoral researchers.
His research is a wide-ranging program designed to understand and quantify the limits of climate predictability from days to decades. His research also involves understanding how the climate will change in response to changes in anthropogenic (e.g., greenhouse gases) and natural (e.g., volcanoes) forcing. This research involves hypothesis testing numerical experiments, using sophisticated state-of-the-art climate models and experimental realtime prediction. His group uses and has access to a suite of climate models, climate data, and high performance computational platforms.

>ALBERTO CAIRO 11/4/2020
(Read the post-series-launch story here.)
The first talk featured Dr. Cairo, director of IDSC Visualization, Data Communication, and Information Design; the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism; and an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Management and the Department of Interactive Media. Dr. Cairo has an extensive career in the news industry and has consulted with media organizations and educational institutions in more than 30 countries. He currently works as a consultant for Google and the Congressional Budget Office. Microsoft has called Dr. Cairo a pioneer who’s always been “at the vanguard of visual journalism.” He is the author of the several books, including:

How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter About Visual Information (W. W. Norton 2019)
The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization (Peachpit Press/Pearson Education 2012), and
The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication (Peachpit Press/Pearson Education 2016).

He has also written popular articles for numerous publications, such as The New York Times and Scientific American. In 2019, he was named an honorary member of the International Statistical Institute.
In his 11/4 presentation, Dr. Cairo shared the following tips/tools:

Mike Monteiro’s book “Ruined by Design” (Listen to Mike Monteiro’s speech “The Smallest Sliver of Hope” from the IDSC-hosted Data Intersections 2020 on our YouTube channel.)
https://twotone.io A tool to create sound from data: open source, free, works on the browser
https://colorbrewer2.org to make sure visualization can be read by color-blind viewers
TOOLS he likes for #communicatingdata

https://www.datawrapper.de/
https://flourish.studio/
https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html
https://www.tidyverse.org/

TOOLS he likes for #exploringdata

https://www.r-project.org/about.html
https://www.python.org/
https://www.tableau.com/trial/tableau-software
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/

TOOLS he likes for #mappingdata

Commercial https://www.arcgis.com/index.html
Free https://qgis.org/en/site/

Advanced Computing User Community Townhall
2021-02-02 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
IDSC is broadening its computational resources and services. We invite you to attend a Townhall specifically for the advanced computing user community.
This User Community Townhall will focus on the IDSC service unit business model and will introduce newly established subsidy programs designed to help the heavy user as well as the uninitiated.
Register Now | Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM

Data Citizens presents Robert Atlas 2/10/2021
2021-02-10 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
IDSC is pleased to announce the third distinguished lecture in the Data Citizens series, Dr. Robert Atlas, Research Professor and Global Coordinator for CARTA, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and, Director Emeritus/ NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.
Register Now | Wednesday 2/10/2021 11:00 AM-12:30 PM via WebX
TALK Title: “Modeling and Simulation for Reducing the Risks Associated with Extreme Weather”
The reduction of losses related to hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena involves many complex aspects ranging from purely theoretical, observational, computational and numerical, to operational and decisional. A correct warning can lead to proper evacuation and damage mitigation, and produce immense benefits. However, over-warning can lead to substantial unnecessary costs, a reduction of confidence in warnings, and a lack of appropriate response. In this chain of information, the role played by scientific research is crucial. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in combination with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other agencies, and universities, is contributing to these efforts through observational and theoretical research to better understand the processes associated with extreme weather. This includes model and data assimilation development, Observing System Experiments (OSE), and Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE), designed to ascertain the value of existing observing systems and the potential of new observing systems to improve weather prediction and theoretical understanding. This high level talk, which was first given as the Keynote address at the 2019 Winter Simulation Conference, will describe innovative research for developing advanced next-generation global and regional models to improve weather prediction, and, the application of OSSEs to optimize the observing system.
Bio
Dr. Robert “Bob” M. Atlas is the former Chief Meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, and is Director Emeritus of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) on Virgina Key in Miami, Florida. Some of the areas he focused his research on included the prediction, movement and strengthening of hurricanes. He has worked with both satellite data and computer models as a means to study these hurricane behaviors.

Dr. Atlas received his PhD in Meteorology and Oceanography in 1976 from New York University (NYU). Prior to receiving the doctorate, he was a weather forecaster in the U.S. Air Force where he maintained greater than 95% forecast accuracy. From 1976 to 1978, Dr. Atlas was a National Research Council Research Associate at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science for SUNY The State University of New York, and, Chief Consulting Meteorologist for the ABC Television Network.
In 1978, Dr. Atlas joined NASA as a research scientist. He served as head of the NASA Data Assimilation Office from 1998-2003, and as Chief Meteorologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 2003-2005. Dr. Atlas has performed research to assess and improve the impact of satellite data on numerical weather prediction since 1973. He was a key member of the team that first demonstrated the significant impact of quantitative satellite data on numerical weather prediction, and he is the world’s leading expert on Observing System Simulation Experiments, a technology that enables scientists to determine the quantitative value of new observing systems before funds are allocated for their development.
He served as a member of the Satellite Surface Stress Working Group, the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) Science Team, the ERS Science Team, the SeaWinds Satellite Team, the Working Group for Space-based Laser Winds, the Scientific Steering Group for GEWEX Global Energy and Water Exchanges, the Council of the American Meteorological Society, and, served as Chairman of the U.S. World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Advisory Group for model-based air-sea fluxes. He is currently a member of the Science Teams for two NASA space missions.
From 1974-1976, he developed a global upper-ocean model and studied oceanic response to atmospheric wind forcing, as well as large-scale atmospheric response to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (unusual events). In more recent years, his research concentrated on the role of how the air and sea interacts in the development of cyclones, the role of soil moisture and unusual SST events in the initiation, maintenance, and decay of prolonged heat waves and drought, and, most recently, on the modeling and prediction of hurricane formation, movement, and intensification.
He is a recipient of the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and the American Meteorological Society’s Banner I. Miller Award. In 2019, just prior to his retirement from NOAA, he was honored by the National Hurricane Center for Enduring Contributions to the nation’s hurricane forecast and warning program, and by the U.S. House of Representatives for his service to the nation.

2-day Scientific Computing with R Workshop 3/4-5
2021-03-04 09:00 - 2021-03-05 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
This 2-day intensive workshop is designed to provide foundational concepts that all programming depends on, using the R statistical computing platform as an example. There are no prerequisites and the workshop is designed for computer users from beginners to advanced.

Thursday & Friday, March 4-5, 2021 | 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days
REGISTER NOW
Instructors will lead a comprehensive, hands-on overview of what is possible with R, how to use R-studio and the R command line, and the integration of version control into an analytical workflow, all using an example dataset. Go from reading data into R to data types, functions, conditional statements, loops, inline documentation, as well as best practices for writing R code that others can understand and use.
The goal of this workshop is to bring you up to speed with data analysis, and it would be incomplete without command line computing and version control. Understanding the shell for command line computing is important in building reproducible data analysis pipelines where your R scripts may be just one component. Git for version control is an incredibly useful tool for collaboration and management of your coding projects.
This workshop will also provide you with the basic computing skills and best practices needed to be productive in a small research team. The format is a mixture of short seminars and hands-on practical exercises, and participants are encouraged to help one another, and to try applying what they have learned to their own research problems during and between sessions.
The syllabus is available now, offering preparation instructions.
Instructors: Tim Norris, PhD, Data Scientist | Cameron Riopelle, PhD, Data Services Librarian
Helpers: Thilani Samarakoon, James Sobczak
This event is free and open to UM Faculty, Staff, and Students.

The Fiction Science of AI: Sheldon Brown Data Citizens Lecture 3/11
2021-03-11 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Data Citizens is a series of in-depth talks by experts in the field of data science on a wide variety of topics including data visualization, big data, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. Join us on March 11 as we welcome Sheldon Brown for a talk on AI.
TALK TITLE: The Fiction Science of AI | REGISTER NOW
“AI is a cultural conception formed at the intersection of the arts, engineering, philosophy, and science. The interplay of these different areas of human cultural activity push and pull our expectations and directions for the development of AI and its deployment in society at large. As we venture forward with these deployments, AI also encounters business, ethics, politics, and the law. We are moving into a new phase of feedback loops between the imagination of AI and its reification. Designers and artists working with AI face the challenge to integrate it positively into real life, informing ideas around what AI means for our human selves and for the profound transformation of our broader social systems.
How can we develop an aesthetic of AI that is accessible and open, moving from obscure and technical black boxes? This talk explores the application of AI in art and design while also raising the complex issues of who we are becoming in the process of inventing it. In this lecture, Sheldon Brown will look at how some of the factors have gotten us to this point and posit some productive provocations for the near-term future of the field.”
“I’m an artist—I work across a lots of forms and mediums but underlying that there’s always been computation.”
Sheldon Brown is an academic, entrepreneur, computer scientist, and artist. He is currently Co-Founder and Vice President of Product Design and Innovation at Virbela, a virtual world company spun out of his lab at UC San Diego where he was Professor and MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Digitial Media and Learning. He was the founding Director of the Arthur C. Clarke for Human Imagination, Director of the UCSD branch of the Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research, and co-founder of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (Calit 2). He went on to help launch the Creative Computing Institute at the University of the Arts in London as Professor and Research Leader. He has also been Visiting Professor at NYU Shanghai and Honorary Professor at Shanghai University. His multi-media artworks have been commissioned and exhibited at museums around the world.

Quote above taken from this lecture: “Agencies of Art and Audience” . . .
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The next speaker in the Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series will be Danica Marinac Dabic on April 8, 2021

"Best Practices in Applied AI" with Philip Evans and Roy Lowrance 3/18
2021-03-18 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom (online)
Join us for a lively conversation about the intersection of business strategy and artificial intelligence (AI). The SingularityU Miami Chapter wraps its three-part online/Zoom artificial intelligence series with two seasoned experts: Philip Evans, Senior Advisor and Fellow at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Roy Lowrance, Founder and CEO of Applied Data Science, LLC. Both prescribe to a presbyopic technological world view, and will candidly share their professional experience and best practices and applications about business and artificial intelligence. Please join us and come with lots of curiosity and questions!
Thursday, March 18, 2021 | 5:00-6:00 PM
Register Now
Tickets are $7.00 per person. A Zoom link will be sent to registered guests.

Philip Evans is a former Senior Partner with BCG. He founded both BCG’s Media and Internet practices and was the first-elected BCG Fellow. He focuses on strategy in the context of disruptive information technologies. He was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated #1 in Economics, was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard, and also has a Harvard MBA. He is a former Director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII).
He is author of many publications, and won a McKinsey Prize, for the best contribution to the Harvard Business Review. His book Blown to Bits was a global best-seller. His TED Talk “How data will transform business” has garnered over 1,700,000 views.
He was designated by Walter Kiechel as one of the 15 “Lords of Strategy” in his book of that title.

Roy Lowrance has over 20 years of data scientist experience working in media, finance, human resources, and education. He established the data science pedagogy at NYU, Colombia, and the University of Miami. Lowrance has a PhD in Computer Science from NYU focused on machine learning for time series with concept drift. Dr. Lowrance is Founder and CEO of Applied Data Science, LLC in New York, Chief Data Scientist at Autonomous Professional Development, and serves as the Chairman of the Industry Advisory Board for the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC).

About Boston Consulting Group
BCG is an American management consulting firm founded in 1963, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with over 90 offices around the world. The firm is the second-largest consulting firm by revenue and one of the most prestigious in the world. BCG has been recognized by Consulting Magazine as the best consulting firm to work for. It is part of the elite Big Three (management consultancies), along with Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company. [source: Wikipedia]

About Singularity University
Singularity University is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build a better future for all. Singularity’s collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. They offer educational programs, courses, and summits; enterprise strategy, leadership, and innovation programs; programs to support and scale startups and promote social impact; and online news and content. (It is not an accredited university and does not provide traditional university qualifications.) The SU community includes entrepreneurs, corporations, global nonprofits, governments, investors, and academic institutions in more than 127 countries. With over 5,000 impact initiatives, our community is driving positive change in the areas of health, environment, security, education, energy, food, prosperity, water, space, disaster resilience, shelter, and governance.
SingularityU Miami Chapter is a local Chapter and community organization of Singularity University. They believe in bridging the creative and technology community and empowering an economy of exponential thinkers and doers in Miami. SU Miami is designed for anyone hungry to change the world. No matter your age, gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion. Aspiring and successful entrepreneurs, technology and art aficionados, geeks, and the curious are welcome.

"Research Ethics and the NIH" Christine Grady Lecture 3/19
2021-03-19 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
From human subjects protection to the responsible conduct of research, bioscientists around the world seek, study, and try to adhere to Ethics standards originating at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For this special Dialogue—the 200th in a University of Miami series that began in 1992—the Chief of the NIH Department of Bioethics will share thoughts on the history and role of the NIH in fostering improved attention to ethical issues in biomedical research. The Dialogue will feature an interview format that will also address federal expectations of institutions that receive funding support, including the importance of ethics education in addition to (mere) compliance; interprofessional research and the role of nurses; and ethical challenges encountered during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Christine Grady is a nurse-bioethicist and a senior investigator who serves as the Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Her research is both conceptual and empirical and primarily in the ethics of clinical research, including informed consent, vulnerability, study design, recruitment, and international research ethics, as well as ethical issues faced by nurses and other health care providers. Dr. Grady has authored more than 175 papers in the biomedical and bioethics literature and authored or edited several books, including The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics. She served from 2010-2017 as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
Research Ethics and the NIH | Christine Grady, RN, PhD
12:00 PM, Friday, March 19, 2021
Via Zoom | Meeting ID: 960 1122 4557 | Passcode: [REDACTED]
Co-Sponsors University of Miami Health System, UM Hospitals and Clinics, UMHC/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute

Dialogues in Research Ethics is a series of monthly seminars. For more information, phone UM Ethics Programs at 305-243-5723 or E-mail ethics@miami.edu.

2-day Scientific Computing with Python Workshop 3/25-26
2021-03-25 09:00 - 2021-03-26 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
This 2-day intensive virtual workshop is designed to provide a foundation of basic concepts that all programming depends on, using the general-purpose programming language, Python, as an example. There are no prerequisites and the workshop is designed for computer users from beginners to advanced.
Thursday & Friday, March 25-26, 2021 | 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days
REGISTER NOW
This is a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to data analysis using Python that will cover topics including data types, functions, conditional statements, loops, errors and exceptions and debugging. Basic data management, version control, and command line computing are also covered as an introduction to remote high performance computing.
The syllabus is available now, offering preparation instructions.
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days
Instructors: Tim Norris, PhD, Research Data Scientist | Cameron Riopelle, PhD, Data Services Librarian

This event is free and open to UM Faculty, Staff, and Students.

2-day Scientific Computing with Python Workshop 3/25-26
2021-03-25 09:00 - 2021-03-26 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
This 2-day intensive virtual workshop is designed to provide a foundation of basic concepts that all programming depends on, using the general-purpose programming language, Python, as an example. There are no prerequisites and the workshop is designed for computer users from beginners to advanced.
Thursday & Friday, March 25-26, 2021 | 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM Course Hours, Both Days
REGISTER NOW
This is a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to data analysis using Python that will cover topics including data types, functions, conditional statements, loops, errors and exceptions, and debugging. Basic data management, version control, and command-line computing are also covered as an introduction to remote high-performance computing.

As part of this 2-day workshop, two guest speakers will join us for a Special Program in Ethics for Scientific Writing and Coding:

Joanna Johnson, PhD, Writing Program, on “Writing and Reproducibility”
Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, on “Ethics and Software Standards”

The syllabus is available now, offering preparation instructions.
Instructors: Tim Norris, PhD, Research Data Scientist | Cameron Riopelle, PhD, Data Services Librarian
Helpers: Thilani Samarakoon, James Sobczak

This event is free and open to UM Faculty, Staff, and Students.

Meet a Data Scientist-Joseph Johnson
2021-03-25 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
If you have ever wondered what data scientists do, IDSC is giving you an opportunity to learn about this important, multifaceted profession. On Thursday, March 25, 2021, IDSC is hosting the sixth session in the “Meet a Data Scientist” series with Miami Herbert Business School Marketing Professor, Dr. Joseph Johnson.
Register Now | Thursday, March 25, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM
An Associate Professor of Marketing and co-creator and organizer of the annual Big Data Conference (co-hosted by the Business School and IDSC), Dr. Johnson is an always engaging and entertaining speaker. He teaches courses on Marketing Analytics, New Product Development, and Strategic Brand Management, as well as a doctoral seminar in Quantitative Methods for Marketing Management. His research interests include marketing and big data analytics, marketing-finance interface, the application of AI techniques to marketing, deep learning for advertising design, text analytics, health care analytics, and new product development and branding.
Dr. Johnson’s current research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and text mining tools as a decision aid for managers. He has created and collaborated in the development of:

Deep-Learning Algorithms for Advertising Design and Testing
Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Designing New Products
Brand Management Tools using Text Mining
Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality Measurement Tools using Text Mining
Dynamic Optimization Methods for Retail Promotions
Media Planning Tools for big Pharma
Digital Media Analytics for Nonprofit Organizations
Credit Portfolio Models for Banks
Clinic Scheduling Model for UM’s Clinics
Risk Models for Predicting Post-Surgery Health Outcomes

His research has appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of International Marketing, the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, and the IEEE Proceedings of the International Conference of Machine Learning Applications (ICMLA).
His paper on market entry strategies into India and China won the Marketing Science Institute H. Paul Root Best Paper Award from the Journal of Marketing in 2008. His research on financial markets has been featured in Financial Times of India, MSNBC, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. He appeared on the TV news show Nightly Business Report (CNBC) to discuss his research on how consumer decision-making leads to financial bubbles. His co-authored paper with Shirin and Sanjay Razdan won the best paper award at the World Conference of Endourology in 2014. He has given invited presentations on his work at the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, the University of Florida, and the Wharton School of Business. In 2017, his students voted him the “Research Mentor of the Year” for his guidance of their research projects.
Dr. Johnson has 32 years of experience—divided between academia and industry—in computerization and empirical models for manufacturing, supply chain, and marketing. In India, he worked at Hindustan Petroleum where he developed rule-based algorithms for optimal gas station locations and layout designs for LPG filling stations. Later, with Tata Steel, he led the team that designed and implemented the computerized systems that integrated demand forecasting and distribution logistics for Tata Steel’s eastern India operations. His work earned him Tata Steel’s award for the best Total Quality project in 1995. In the Middle East, he worked with SSB (Oman), where he developed pricing and promotion response models for Toyota’s auto line up. In the US, he has worked on projects with Affinova (acquired by Nielsen in 2014), Axalta, CheapOair, Coflow Jet, Dell, Eli-Lilly, EMpulse, Royal Caribbean, Ocean Reef Club, NuPhoton Technologies, Proton Data Security, Perry Ellis, Ryder Transportation, Power Financial Credit Union, SAS, UHealth, Universal Studios, Fox Studios (now 20th Century Studios), and Ventas.

Mark your calendar for these upcoming Meet a Data Scientist” talks to be held on Zoom. These events are free and open to the public.

Selcuk Uluagac, 2:00-3:00 PM, April 8, 2021 | Register Now
Daniel Messinger 3:30-4:30 PM, Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Register Now

Meet a Data Scientist-Selcuk Uluagac
2021-04-08 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The Meet a Data Scientist series is a chance to get up close and personal with top-level experts in a wide variety of fields that use data science. The purpose of this series is to introduce our audience to the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work,
and passion for how they can use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields. Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data!
On Thursday, April 8, 2021 (2:00-3:00 PM), IDSC is hosting the seventh session in the “Meet a Data Scientist” series with A. Selcuk Uluagac, PhD. Dr. Uluagac is currently a member of the Florida International University faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Eminent Scholar Chaired Associate Professor, where he directs the Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab (CSL).
Register Now | Thursday, April 8, 2021, 2:00-3:00 PM
TALK TITLE: Security and Privacy of IoT Apps and Devices: A Machine Learning Perspective
Cyberspace is expanding fast with the introduction of new Internet of Things (IoT) and CPS devices. Wearables, smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness trackers, medical devices, Internet-connected house appliances, and vehicles have grown exponentially in a short period of time. Given the increasingly critical nature of the cyberspace of these IoT devices and applications, it is imperative that they are secured against malicious activities. In this talk, Dr. Uluagac will introduce different current research projects in Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab (CSL) related to the security and privacy of IoT devices and applications, highlighting how different machine learning algorithms enabled impeccable results:

The first topic will introduce the sensory channel threats to CPS and IoT systems. Dr. Uluagac will discuss how using sensory channels (e.g., light, temperature, infrared), an adversary can successfully attack IoT/CPS applications and devices.
The second topic will introduce the design of a novel IoT device fingerprinting and identification framework to complement existing security solutions (e.g., authentication and access control) in identifying IoT devices (i.e., ensuring the devices are actually who they are).
The third topic will focus on how IoT devices deployed in smart settings (e.g., home, office) can leak sensitive information (events, activities) from different IoT apps and implementations even if the traffic is encrypted.
Dr. Uluagac will introduce a usable wearable-assisted continuous authentication framework where a wearable device (e.g., smartwatch) is used to authenticate a computer user continuously utilizing the motion sensors of the wearable.
Finally, he will share the CSL’s most recent work in detecting illegal bitcoin operations (i.e., cryptojacking), which uses machine learning techniques to accurately detect the presence of unwarranted cryptomining activity in real-time.

About Selcuk Ulugac
Before FIU, Dr. Uluagac was a Senior Research Engineer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Prior to Georgia Tech, he was a Senior Research Engineer at Symantec.
Dr. Uluagac earned his Ph.D. from the School of ECE at Georgia Institute of Technology. He also received an M.S. in Information Security from the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech and a M.S. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
His research is on security and privacy of Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and he has hundreds of scientific/creative works in the practical and applied aspects of these areas. In 2015, Dr. Uluagac received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which is NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. In 2015, he was awarded the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)’s Summer Faculty Fellowship. In 2016, he received the Summer Faculty Fellowship from the University of Padua (Università di Padova), Italy.
He is an active member of IEEE, ACM, and USENIX and a regular contributor to national panels and leading journals and conferences in the field. Dr. Uluagac has served on the program committees of top-tier security conferences such as IEEE S&P (Oakland), NDSS, ASIACCS, ACSAC, inter alia. He was the General Chair of ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (ACM WiSec) in 2019. He was the TPC Co-Chair of IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization & Software Defined Networks in 2016 and 2017 and IEEE International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems Security (CPS-Sec) in 2014-18, which he initiated. In 2018, he co-chaired the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Annual Expo and Conference, which is one of the largest events in the cyber education domain.
Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Communications and Surveys and Tutorials (network security lead area editor), and Elsevier Computer Networks. He has been very active in external funding efforts during his tenure at FIU on IoT and CPS security topics, and successfully been awarded competitive grants by US NSF, US Department of Energy, US Department of Labor, US Air Force Research Lab, Cyber Florida, Trend Micro, and Cisco.
He is very entrepreneurial and visionary with his research. Many of his research ideas have resulted in patents. And, he is very active in the local and national community; his research has been covered by different media outlets (TV, online, published) numerous times. More information can be obtained from: http://nweb.eng.fiu.edu/selcuk/

Mark your calendar for the next “Meet a Data Scientist” talk to be held on Zoom. These events are free and open to the public.

Daniel Messinger 3:30-4:30 PM, Thursday, April 22, 2021 | Register Now

Smart Cities MIAMI Conference
2021-04-15 13:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The University of Miami School of Architecture and Institute for Data Science and Computing present the 4th annual Smart Cities Miami Conference on Thursday, April 15, 1:00-4:00 PM.
The annual Smart Cities Miami Conference provides a forum for leaders in academia, industry, and government to closely examine evolving theories and practices in the Smart City field. The considered topics vary in scope and nature within a general theme that is particularly relevant for each year.
The theme for the 2021 edition is “Health and Well-being in the Post-Pandemic City” providing opportunities to explore questions such as:

How can Smart City technology monitor the emergence and transmission of contagious diseases?
Will Smart City technology be used to enforce compliance to safety guidelines? And what will be the consequences for individual rights and privacy?
How do embedded technology, IoT, and digital media enable healthcare at home?

Join our panel discussions as we explore cutting-edge health care and the innovative works in progress at the University.

Register Now
Sponsor Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA)

AGENDA

1:00-2:40
Welcome Address – Provost Duerk and Dean el-Khoury

Keynote Speaker Michael Mylrea, PhD

Dr. Michael Mylrea is Senior Technical Advisor to University of Miami CARTA. He has led various Cybersecurity R&D efforts for industry, government, and academia. As a Cybersecurity Executive at GE Global Research, he led the development of GE’s first AI/ML driven cybersecurity industrial immune systems and various solutions for Operational Technology (IIoT, ICS, IoT). Dr. Mylrea has +18 years of experience solving complex cybersecurity, energy, technology, and national security challenges. He holds +13 cyber and blockchain patents and led cybersecurity product and R&D efforts, including one of the first and largest federally funded blockchain projects – credited with ushering blockchain tech research to the national lab system. He launched and led a successful ethical hacking cybersecurity company and has held CISO and senior technical positions in industry, government, including, but not limited to: GE, Pacific Northwest National Lab, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, CT7 (CISO), Deloitte, US Cyber Consequences Unit, Harvard Berkman Klein Center, and Democracy Council (CIO).
He has led cybersecurity training, strategy, and advisory efforts with large industry clients, including, but not limited to: GE, Bank of America, Google, UTRC (Raytheon), IBM, Tenable, Siemens, and various large energy utilities and finance companies. Michael has helped influence various standards, working groups, and regulations through participation in Group of 7, National Security Council, National Science Foundation, National Academy of Science, IEEE, NDIA, AAAI, and NIST advisory, panels, and boards. He frequently keynotes large conferences and workshops such as RSA and IoT World. His work has appeared in news, journal articles, television, and congressional testimony and is frequently cited in technical, industry, and government publications.
Dr. Mylrea is a National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholar alum, completing his Doctorate at George Washington University (GWU) on Cybersecurity. He finished his M.S. Cybersecurity course work at WGU, focusing on information assurance and operational cyber resilience. Michael also received an MA from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where his thesis focused on international cybersecurity policy, law and regulation. He completed coursework at Harvard Law School, Kennedy School of Government, and MIT Sloan; two BAs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Michael is a recipient of a number of distinguished awards (Fulbright Scholarship, NSF CyberCorps, Rosenthal Fellowship, FDD National Security Fellowship, Top 99 Future Leaders Award). Michael speaks Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese and is proficient in auditing various computer languages.

SESSION 1: Healthcare in the Smart City
This panel discussion will consider opportunities provided by smart city technology for transforming healthcare. From embedded technology to IoT, data analytics, and AI, the adoption of emergent technology is intensifying with the urgency precipitated by the pandemic. How will the hospital, the clinic, and the home connect and synergize in the post-COVID networked city? What lessons have we learned and what innovative practices will outlast the crisis to revolutionize healthcare? The panel brings views from different angles to capture a cross-section of a rapidly evolving landscape.

MODERATOR Yelena Yesha
Dr. Yelena Yesha is Chief Innovation Officer and Head of International Relations for IDSC. In this role, Dr. Yesha assists faculty in engaging government and industrial partners to collaborate with the University, and she consults with faculty on developing research ideas into innovations. She is the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA), and an international leader in Blockchain.

PANELISTS

Frank Ricotta
With 30+ years of experience as a CEO and CTO, Frank Ricotta uses his strong entrepreneurial, problem solving, and communication skills to create world-class solutions that capitalize on market opportunities. Frank is currently the CEO & Founder of BurstIQ, which solved the fundamental challenge that prevented blockchain from being utilized in the healthcare space by supporting large, complex, and disparate data on chain, while maintaining privacy and security.

Mic Bowman
Sr. Principal Engineer, Intel Labs, Mic Bowman leads the decentralized computing research group. He has spent over 20 years working on large-scale databases and distributed systems. Among other roles he served as a member of the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee for several years contributing to architecture definition and evaluation of technologies for privacy and confidentiality. He is currently working on methods for improving the security, scalability, and privacy of distributed ledgers.

Jeb Linton
Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor at IBM, Jeb Linton is the CTO for Partner Ecosystem and Cognitive Security within IBM Cloud, Program Director for the National Capital Area Center for Advanced Studies, and founder of the IBM Cognitive Security initiative. Mr. Linton is a Master Inventor, and has worked for IBM since 2008 as technical strategist and architect on numerous Cloud Computing, Storage, Security, and Cognitive Computing projects.

Pamela Tomski
Pamela Tomski is an analytics advisor and energy/CCUS expert. She works with SAS, a leader in big data analytics, AI, and ML, to expand their analytics footprint and partnerships with the US Department of Energy (DOE), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM). She also builds and participates in R&D partnerships with national labs, industry, and academic research organizations.

Pierre-François D’Haese
Pierre-François D’Haese’s research interests include Medical Image Processing and Analysis, Image Registration, Computer-Assisted Intervention. He is the CEO, Neurotargeting; Director of Digital Health and Imaging Analytics, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute; and Research Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE).

2:40-2:50
Break

2:50-3:35
SESSION 2: University of Miami Innovation Showcase

This session presents work in progress at the University of Miami. The spotlight is on an interdisciplinary team that is taking on some of the challenges and opportunities brought up in the preceding discussion. The project reinvents the hospital by reconstituting it as a distributed network, including the home as a technology-empowered hub. Team members include researchers in medicine, computer/data science, architecture, biomedical engineering, biochemistry, and molecular biology, all converging on IDSC as a locus for innovation in the smart city arena. The session features a demonstration of concepts and prototypes in development followed by a discussion of further potential and applications.

PANELISTS

Sylvia Daunert
Sylvia Daunert, PharmD, MS, PhD is the Lucille P. Markey Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UM Miller School of Medicine, Associate Director of the JT MacDonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute of the University of Miami, and Director of Research, for the Center for Integrative and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Daunert’s research interests are in Bionanotechnology.

Sapna Deo
Dr. Sapna Deo is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UM Miller School of Medicine. Dr Deo’s research interest is in the development of technologies for the detection of pathogens for resource-poor settings. Her work also involves the design of novel nanobioanalytical techniques based on luminescence and quantum dots for detection of microRNAs and RNA molecules for application in biomedicine, diagnosis, and pathogen detection.

Nick Tsinoremas
Nicholas F. Tsinoremas, PhD, is the Vice Provost for Research Computing and Data and Founding Director of the Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC), which was established to catalyze data-intensive research in fields ranging from medicine to earth sciences, urban planning, digital humanities, and business. He also holds faculty appointments in the Miller School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Rodolphe el-Khoury (Lead Presenter)
Rodolphe el-Khoury, PhD, is Dean of the UM School of Architecture. Dean el-Khoury was trained as an historian and practitioner and continues to divide his time between scholarship and design for his firm Khoury Levit Fong (KLF). His current research focuses on applications for IT aiming for enhanced responsiveness and sustainability in buildings and smart cities, and the application of robotics and embedded technology, including immersive environments and multi-sensory architecture.

Yelena Yesha
Dr. Yelena Yesha is Chief Innovation Officer and Head of International Relations for IDSC. In this role, Dr. Yesha assists faculty in engaging government and industrial partners to collaborate with the University, and consults faculty on developing research ideas into innovations. She is the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA), and an international leader in Blockchain.

3:40
Plenary Keynote Speaker

Mark Wolff, MS PhD
Advisory Industry Consultant | Chief Health Analytics StrategistGlobal IoT Division, SAS Institute
Dr. Wolff has more than 25 years of experience in health care, working in the US and Europe. He is recognized as an accomplished practitioner and thought leader in the development and application of advanced and predictive analytics to complex problems in the Health Care and Life Science Industries. His current focus is on the development and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to real-time, sensor/IoT data in support of health outcomes and safety research, visualization, and development of intelligent, decision support systems.

TALK TITLE: Your Digital Twin Will See You Now—How the Internet of Medical Things and Edge Analytics are Changing Health Care
Value-Based Care and Patient Centricity have emerged as global paradigms to address how patient and overall health care are delivered and paid for. This will incentivize care providers to better engage patients and to more consistently adopt evidence-based medicine in diagnosis and treatment decisions. A major driving force behind this transformation is the emergence of the Internet of Medical Things or more specifically, connectivity between patients, clinicians, machines, and care environments. This connectivity will, ultimately, result in an exponential increase in the amount, dimensionality, and velocity of data available for operational and clinical decision-making. Perhaps one of the most important elements of this transformation will be the concept of the “Digital Twin”, an algorithmic, dynamic, in silico representation of an individual’s present and future health status, enabling faster and more precise diagnoses and more scientific determination of the most appropriate and effective treatment plan.

4:00
Closing Remarks

"ML + UX: Building Machine Learning Products for People" Lecture
2021-04-21 12:00 - 13:15 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Can you do UX Research on machine learning systems? Can you get feedback from real users before the AI has been built? Can you even test a machine learning system before you have a production-ready model? Yes, yes, and yes! In this Ribeiro Innovation Fund Speaker Series talk, Michelle Carney, Sr. UX Researcher, Machine Learning + AI at Google, and Lecturer at the Stanford d.school, will share how she combines her background in machine learning with her expertise in UX—including the MLUX meetup she organizes, her favorite resource the People + AI Research Guidebook, and a case study on her process of doing UXR for machine learning.
This event is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 | 12:00 PM
Register now on Eventbrite.

Meet a Data Scientist-Daniel Messinger
2021-04-22 15:30 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The Meet a Data Scientist series is a chance to get up close and personal with top-level experts in a wide variety of fields that use data science. The purpose of this series is to introduce our audience to the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work, and their passion for how they can use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields. Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data!
Continuing our “Meet a Data Scientist” series, join us on Thursday, April 22, 2021 (3:30-4:30 PM), for a discussion with interdisciplinary developmental psychologist Dr. Daniel Messinger, IDSC Director of Social Systems Informatics, offering a glimpse on how he uses data in his research.
Register Now | Thursday, April 22, 2021, 3:30-4:30 PM
TALK TITLE: Data Drive Development: A Computational Journey
Dr. Messinger is a Cooper Fellow and Professor in the Departments of Psychology & Pediatrics, the Coordinator of the Developmental Psychological Program, and Associate Director for the Child Division (Developmental Program), and the Director of the UM SIB Smile Lab. His specialties are: social, language, and emotional development; modeling interaction using objectively measured, big behavioral data; and he focuses on autism, attachment, and preschool classrooms. Dr. Messinger uses machine learning to paint an objective picture of children’s interaction and employs computational models to make sense of the resulting big behavioral data. He works with children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), hearing loss, and poverty. By understanding interaction, he seeks to foster pathways to healthy development. Specific projects include the emergence of secure attachment, objective measures of autistic behavior, and language and proximity/orientation networks in inclusive classrooms.
As the author of over 120 scientific publications appearing in journals such as Nature Communications, Developmental Science, and Molecular Autism, Dr. Messinger has over a dozen years of experience leading longitudinal research initiatives funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Institute of Education Sciences.
This event is free and open to the public.

WiDS Miami 2021 Women in Data Conference 4/23
2021-04-23 13:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
WiDS Miami 2021 is a one-day technical conference that provides an opportunity to hear about the latest data science-related research in a number of domains, learn how leading-edge companies are leveraging data science for success, and connect with potential mentors, collaborators, and others in the field.
The Conference is open to everyone—regardless of gender—who is interested in engaging with and learning from the local data science community. Whether you are an experienced data scientist or looking to learn more about the field, WiDS Miami will have great content, and opportunities to connect with the local data science community, leadership, potential partners, employers, and employees. Join us virtually on Friday 4/23 from 1:00 to 5:00 PM for talks from local and international speakers from academia and the industry.
Register Now | AGENDA
The Global Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and support women in the field. WiDS Miami is an independent event organized by the Group for Resilient and Inclusive Tech (G.R.I.T) to coincide with the annual Global Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference held at Stanford University and an estimated 150+ locations worldwide. All genders are invited to attend WiDS Miami, which features outstanding women doing outstanding work.

Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series presents Neilam Ram
2021-05-06 15:30 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Data Citizens is a series of in-depth talks by experts in the field of data science on a wide variety of topics including data visualization, big data, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. Join us on Thursday, May 6, 2021 as we welcome Neilam Ram Professor of Psychology and Professor of Communication from Stanford University for a talk on ‘screenomics’.
TALK TITLE: “Screenomics: A New Venue for Discovering the Dynamics of Digital Life”
Thursday, 5/6 3:30-4:30 PM | REGISTER NOW
“We have recently developed and forwarded a new approach for capturing, visualizing, and analyzing the unique record of an individual’s everyday digital experiences—screenomics. In our quest to derive knowledge from and understand screenomes—ordered sequences of hundreds of thousands of smartphone and laptop screenshots obtained every five seconds for up to one year – the data have become a playground for learning about computational machinery used to processes images and text, machine learning algorithms, human-labeling of taxonomies, qualitative inquiry, and the tension between N = 1 and N = many approaches. Using a selection of empirical examples, we illustrate how engagement with these new data is reshaping what we know about behavioral change in a wide variety of domains and how we study the person-context transactions that drive individuals’ digital lives.”
Prof. Nilam Ram studies the dynamic interplay between psychological and media processes and how they change from moment-to-moment and across the life span.

Nilam’s research grows out of a history of studying change. After completing his undergraduate study of economics, he worked as a currency trader, frantically tracking and trying to predict the movement of world markets as they jerked up, down, and sideways. Later, he moved on to the study of human movement, kinesiology, and eventually psychological processes—with a specialization in longitudinal research methodology. Generally, Nilam studies how short-term changes (e.g., processes such as learning, information processing, emotion regulation, etc.) develop across the life span, and how longitudinal study designs contribute to the generation of new knowledge. Current projects include examinations of age-related change in children’s self- and emotion-regulation; patterns in minute-to-minute and day-to-day progression of adolescents’ and adults’ emotions; and change in contextual influences on well-being during old age. He is developing a variety of study paradigms that use recent developments in data science and the intensive data streams arriving from social media, mobile sensors, and smartphones to study change at multiple time scales.

Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series presents Marjorie McShane
2021-05-20 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Join us on Thursday, May 20, as we welcome Marjorie McShane, Associate Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Cognitive Science Department, and Co-Director of the Language-Endowed Intelligent Agents (LEIA) Lab for a talk on artificial intelligence and language processing.
Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series is an ongoing course of in-depth talks by experts in the field of data science on a wide variety of topics including data visualization, big data, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics.
Register Now
Thursday, May 20, 2021 | 1:00-2:00 PM
Talk Title: Toward Broad and Deep Language Understanding for Intelligent Systems
Abstract: The early vision of AI included the goal of endowing intelligent systems with human-like language processing capabilities. This proved harder than expected, leading the vast majority of natural language processing practitioners to pursue less ambitious, shorter-term goals. Whereas the utility of human-like language processing is unquestionable, its feasibility is quite justifiably questioned. In this talk, I will not only argue that some approximation of human-like language processing is possible, but I will also present a program of R&D that is working on making it a reality. This vision and progress to date are described in the book Linguistics for the Age of AI (MIT Press, 2021).

About Marjorie McShane: Dr. McShane is a cognitive scientist, computational linguist, and knowledge engineer who develops cognitive models of intelligent agents that can collaborate with people in task-oriented, dialog applications. She is particularly interested in the integration of functionalities that are often treated in isolation, such as physiological stimulation, emotion modeling, and the many aspects of cognition.
One aspect of cognition to which she has devoted particular attention is natural language processing, approached from a cross-linguistic perspective and with the goal of producing machine-tractable descriptions that can support sophisticated conversational agents. McShane was a central contributor to the Boas system, a proof-of-concept system that elicited knowledge about any of the world’s languages from linguistically untrained native speakers. Boas used a mixed-initiative strategy, by which the system guided certain aspects of the knowledge compilation process and the user took the lead in others. Among the key requirements were: that the system accommodates descriptions of not only anticipated but also unanticipated phenomena, that the descriptions be sufficiently formal to directly provide support to a generic machine translation engine, and that the system be usable by informants without the support of developers.
McShane has also worked extensively on cognitive modeling in the medical domain, to support the configuration of intelligent agents playing the roles of virtual patients and tutors in training applications such as the Maryland Virtual Patient system. Guided by the functional needs of such agents, McShane has recently begun to pursue the modeling of “mindreading” (otherwise known as mental model ascription), defined as inferring features of another human or artificial agent that cannot be directly observed, such as that agent’s beliefs, plans, goals, intentions, personality traits, mental and emotional states, and knowledge about the world. This capability is an essential functionality of intelligent agents if they are to engage in sophisticated collaborations with people.
McShane has authored three books, Linguistics for the Age of AI (co-authored with Sergei Nirenburg, The MIT Press, 2021), A Theory of Ellipsis (Oxford University Press, 2005) and An Innovative, Practical Approach to Polish Inflection (Lincom Europa, 2003), and has published extensively in the areas of linguistics, natural language processing, cognitive modeling, and knowledge representation.
She earned her PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Princeton University, and since then, has been working on computational linguistics, intelligent agent modeling, and natural language processing.

WBAF Miami Office Grand Opening Ceremony
2021-05-25 09:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | WBF Business School (virtual)
After creating a national office in Washington, DC, last year, the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) USA recently established a Miami office and has set their grand-opening ceremony for May 25, on the heels of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC).
WBAF is an international organization that aims to ease access to finance for startup businesses and is committed to collaborating globally to empower world economic development by creating innovative financial instruments for innovators, startups, and small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). This new partnership between UM IDSC and WBAF will open new doors for University of Miami students, faculty, and industry partners to share smart city ideas and to develop innovative technology strategies that can benefit communities around the world.
Join us virtually as we celebrate at the WBAF Miami Office Grand Opening.
You are invited . . .
World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF)
Miami Office Grand Opening Celebration
Tuesday, May 25, 9:00-11:30 AM ET | 2:00-4:30 PM GMT

Distinguished Speakers and Moderators include:
Melissa Medina of eMerge Americas, Raimundo Rodulfo (City of Coral Gables), Matt Hagman, and Christine Johnson (Beacon Council); and from the University of Miami: Norma Sue Kenyon, John A. Quelch, Rodolphe el-Khoury, and Nicholas Tsinoremas; as well as WBAF officers Baybars Altuntas, Gerard Dache, Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, Robert Levin, Israel Pons, and H.E Manuel A. Gonzalez-Sanz.
Your interactive invitation and a full agenda await at wbs.wbaforum.org.
TO REGISTER: Close the invitation pop-up and click anywhere to enter the building. Once inside the building, the next pop-up invites you to click on the green button for the Miami Ceremony.
Close that pop-up and click on the word “Auditorium” to gain access to the event floor. Then, choose “Grand Opening Ceremony-Miami Office”, and please register if you plan to attend. On the day of the event, click “Join,” and we’ll see you there!

3-Week Summer Faculty Workshop "Deep Analytics for Massive Data"
2021-06-07 09:00 - 2021-06-25 12:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) is offering a 3-week online (via Zoom) workshop for UM faculty not currently using data science or ML for research/teaching. This workshop provides a comprehensive but accessible introduction to data science and machine learning (ML), introducing relevant concepts and tools along with major modules.
“Deep Analytics for Massive Data: Roadmap Towards a Transformative Knowledge Grammar Using AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science”
Monday 6/7 – Friday 6/25/2021 | Weekdays 9:00 AM – 12:00 Noon | SYLLABUS
Minimal Prerequisites: College math and some experience in computing or IT are adequate.
The workshop uses cloud data and software resources (IBM cloud) in deploying applications. The cloud resources offer broad and complete coverage of topics with hands-on experience. Some initial programming language training is delivered to bring up the workshop participants to speed. At the conclusion, participants will acquire skills and tools in ML and data science for academic research, industrial development, or advanced research.
Topics include:

The Landscape of the Fields
Probability, Information, Uncertainty, Statistics, and Inference
Linear Algebra, Vector Calculation, and Optimization
Data science/machine learning methodologies
Databases and Structured Query Languages
Cloud Computing and Cloud Databases
Unsupervised and Supervised Learning
Natural Language Processing
Computer Vision
Time-Series Forecasting

Application Process: Interested faculty should fill out the application form, including a short paragraph describing how you plan to use the experience from the workshop in your research. Please direct questions to idscengagement@miami.edu.
Application Deadline: Friday, 5/28 by midnight.
Space is limited to 15 participants.
The workshop format opens with a 90-minute lecture followed by a 90-minute lab administered by a team of IDSC instructors via Zoom.

Post-Workshop: For the effort of continuing research/teaching in data science and ML, consultation, and technical assistance will be available from IDSC.

Free Software Carpentry Scientific Computing Mini Workshops 6/21-24
2021-06-21 13:00 - 2021-06-24 16:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Software Carpentry helps researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. These hands-on Python, R, Git, Github, and Bash Shell mini workshops will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation.
Free and open to University of Miami Faculty, Staff, and Students, these sessions are aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don’t need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented. Participants need a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) with administrative privileges to pre-install the necessary software package(s).
REGISTER NOW register once/attend 1 or more session(s)
All Sessions are 1:00-4:30 PM via Zoom. Add to your Google Calendar
Full Workshop details at: https://tibbben.github.io/2021-06-21-UM-Scientific-Computing/

Monday 6/21 Bash Shell | Instructors: Elizabeth Overstreet and Tim Norris, Support: James Sobczak
Tuesday 6/22 Intro to Python | Instructor: Tim Norris, Support: Thilani Samarakoon
Wednesday 6/23 Git and Github | Instructors: Elizabeth Overstreet and Cameron Riopelle, Support: James Sobczak
Thursday 6/24 Intro to R | Instructors: Cameron Riopelle, Support: Thilani Samarakoon

Please complete this pre-event survey.
Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems. For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper “Best Practices for Scientific Computing”. To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.
Contact: Please email tnorris@miami.edu for more information.

Cameron Riopelle, PhD
Head of Data Services
Librarian Assistant Professor
UM Richter Libraries

Tim Norris, PhD
Data Scientist
Richter Libraries
Institute for Data Science & Computing

Elizabeth Overstreet, MSDS
Data Broker Manager
UM Miller School of Medicine

James Sobczak, MS
Head of Data Services
STEM Librarian
UM Richter Libraries

Thilani Samarakoon, PhD
Biomedical Data Librarian
Richter Libraries

WSBO-2021: Synergizing Biomedical Ontologies Workshop 7/14-15
2021-07-14 08:00 - 2021-07-15 16:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
This workshop is dedicated to developing tools/APIs for mapping or synergizing biomedical ontologies in ways that fit the current, modernized, technology era. Conversations will be around the best practices, with an emphasis on collaborative development and dynamic workflows.
Ontologies are standardized, formal vocabularies developed by domain experts, typically in collaboration with ontologists. In the era of big data and AI, they enable finding, accessing, interoperating, and reusing datasets and other digital research objects, in other words, making data F.A.I.R.
As more communities develop ontologies to meet their specific needs, it is critical that we maintain synergy with existing ontologies, especially reference ontologies. Similar, but unreferenced terms create ambiguities that complicate the implementation of the very F.A.I.R. principles ontologies seek to support. The biomedical field is especially rich with similar ontologies, including BAO and OBI, MONDO and DOID, DTO and PR, CLO and BRENDA, UBERON and FMA, and others. Extensive mapping efforts are often required to maintain associations between these ontologies, making integration expensive and cumbersome. No formal process has been established for collaboratively converging and actively maintaining synergy between ontologies.
The goal of this meeting is to stimulate conversation. Join us online via Zoom:
Full Program Schedule TBD
Day 1: Wednesday 7/14 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Day 2: Thursday 7/15 12:00 – 4:00 PM EDT

Interactive workshop for implementing and using OntoloBridge

Register Now | Website
Please register using Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-on-synergizing-biomedical-ontologies-wsbo-tickets-149242142265

Abstract Submissions
We welcome submissions of abstracts of 300 words or less for oral presentations and tool demos.
Submit your abstract here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wsbo2021.
Selected abstracts will give a presentation not to exceed 15 minutes plus an additional 5 minutes for audience questions (for a total of 20 minutes).

Special Thanks to:
Workshop Co-Chairs

Stephan Schürer (University of Miami)
Mark Musen (Stanford University)

Workshop Organizers:

Samantha Jeschonek (Collaborative Drug Discovery)
Aisyah Yu Lin (National Institutes of Health)
Hande Kucuk McGinty (University of Ohio)

Demo Day 9/18 to Fund Biotech, Healthtech, and MedTech Start-ups and Scale-Ups
2021-09-18 10:00 - 12:00 UTC | Zoom (online)
Is your start-up or scale-up ready for the global fundraising stage? Join World Business Angels Investment Forum and the University of Miami Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) on Saturday, Sept.18, 2021, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM (EST), for a virtual Demo Day to connect healthtech, biotech, and medtech companies with angel investors and venture capitalists. Demo Day facilitates access to a global network of investors and provides an opportunity to participate in an investor-readiness workshop, showcase your company to a global audience, and connect with experienced mentors.
Please submit your interest and inquiries to:
Ingrid.Vasiliu-Feltes@wbaforum.org

Registration Link forthcoming . . .

About World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF)
The World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) is an international organization aiming to ease access to finance for businesses from start-up to scale-up, with the ultimate goal of generating more jobs and more social justice worldwide. It is committed to collaborating globally to empower world economic development by creating innovative financial instruments for innovators, startups, and SMEs.
The Forum interacts with leaders in all areas of society, first and foremost in business and political spheres, to help assess needs and establish goals, bearing in mind that the public interest is of paramount importance. WBAF engages a wide range of institutions, both public and private, local and international, commercial and academic to help shape the global agenda.
WBAF holds that, with the participation of individuals and institutions from multiple sectors and from all parts of society, real progress can be achieved.

Data Citizens Lecture Series presents Santiago Ortiz 9/23
2021-09-23 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
Join us on Thursday, September 23, 2021, 4:00-500 PM, for our continuing lecture series “Data Citizens” featuring Santiago Ortiz. Santiago is the Chief Data Officer at DrumWave. He’s a mathematician, data scientist, interactive visualization developer, inventor, creates and develops highly innovative and interactive projects for the web.
Post-Event Story + VIDEO on YOUTUBE
TALK TITLE: “Humans and Data”
In this Data Citizens talk, Santiago will explore the rich and complex relationships between humans and data: How machines and humans differ when it comes to data and information, what dimensions of humans’ life are being captured in datasets, and how data and data visualization are means of communication, expression, and creativity.
Register Now

About Santiago Ortiz
I create digital experiences that help people solve complex problems with data. I develop interfaces that allow for exploration, combination, deep understanding, and decision making based on large, diverse, and dynamic datasets. I have experience as a teacher, digital media artist, interactive data visualization researcher, data scientist, product leader, and entrepreneur. I’ve lived and worked in South America, Europe, Africa, and North America. I currently live in Palo Alto, California.
My public project can be visited at moebio.com

Data Citizens: A Distinguished Lecture Series is an ongoing course of in-depth talks by experts in the field of data science on a wide variety of topics including data visualization, big data, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. This lecture series is free and open to the public.

Meet a Data Scientist presents Athena Hadjixenofontos 9/30
2021-09-30 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The Meet a Data Scientist series is a chance to get up close and personal with top-level data science professionals. Join us for a talk with Athena Hadjixenofontos, Vice President of Data Science for a major financial institution. The purpose of the Meet a Data Scientist lecture series is to introduce our audience to the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work, and passion for how they can use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields. Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data! This lecture series is co-sponsored by the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and is free and open to the public.
Register Now | Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM
TALK TITLE: Model Development with High Dimensional Data
In some domains, like natural language processing, and genomics, high-dimensional data is inescapable. We will start with some definitions, then dive into the implications of high-dimensionality for exploratory data analysis, visualization, and model building. We will continue with a few examples of how machine learning algorithms react to high-dimensional data, and approaches to mitigate the limitations of modeling in a high-dimensional space. We will then wrap up by considering some examples of novel approaches that expand our toolset.
About Athena
Under Athena’s leadership, the talented data scientists on her team have developed models that improve risk mitigation efforts across business lines and ensure regulatory compliance. Athena got her PhD in statistical genetics from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and went on to complete her postdoctoral training at Yale University. She lives in Phoenix with her neuroscientist wife, their curious toddler, and one very relaxed cat.

Meet a Data Scientist presents Lindsay Thomas 10/20
2021-10-20 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom (online)
The Meet a Data Scientist series is a chance to get up close and personal with top-level data science professionals. Join us for a talk with Professor Lindsay Thomas who teaches at the intersections of cultural and media studies, contemporary US literature, and the digital humanities.
The purpose of the Meet a Data Scientist lecture series is to introduce our audience to the people behind the data, their lives, interests, career choices, their work, and passion for how they can use data to solve grand challenges in their respective fields. Join us as we peer behind the curtain and meet the data scientists behind the data! This lecture series is co-sponsored by the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and is free and open to the public.
Register Now | Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, 4:00-5:00 PM
TALK TITLE: “When Are Texts Data? Views from a Data Humanist”
Data is often considered the domain of scientists and statisticians. But the proliferation of data and databases across nearly all aspects of daily life has made the study and use of data a vital concern for humanists as well. This talk will explore the use of data in the humanities today, focusing especially on literary and cultural studies. We will investigate what it means to think of text as data and learn about how scholars are using data to answer new questions about literary history and contemporary culture. Dr. Thomas will also discuss her research as co-director of WhatEvery1Says, a public humanities project that investigated contemporary public discourse about the humanities. WhatEvery1Says collected more than 9 million news articles and social media posts about the humanities and sciences and collected survey data from over 600 participants on two different university campuses, including the University of Miami. Dr. Thomas will survey project findings and discuss how she became interested in using methods in data science in her research.
About Lindsay lindsaythomas.net
Lindsay Thomas is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Miami. Her research and teaching focus on the digital humanities, cultural studies, and contemporary US literature. She is the author of Training for Catastrophe: Fictions of National Security after 9/11 (2021), a book about how the post-9/11 national security state uses fiction to train people to accept disaster as part of everyday life. From 2017-2021, she was co-director of WhatEvery1Says, a public humanities project that used machine learning to explore the shape of contemporary public discourse on the value of the humanities. She has published articles on post-9/11 national security and contemporary fiction and film, and she is a co-curator of the WhatEvery1Says datasets, which include over 9 million news articles and social media posts about the humanities today.
