Carry the Two

Mathematics & Gambling Episode 3: Yet More Sports Betting

IMSI — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:51:29 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats intersect with the world of gambling. This episode is all about sports prop bets and parlays. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by David Taylor mathematician, Assistant Vice President at SUNY Erie, and creator of a course and author of a book on the mathematics, statistics, and probability of gambling.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Make sure to check out David's Book Games, Gambling, and Probability: An Introduction to Mathematics

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Gambling Episode 4: Sports Betting

IMSI — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:23:21 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats intersect with the world of gambling. This episode is all about the sports bets of over/under, spreads, and moneylines. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by David Taylor mathematician, Assistant Vice President at SUNY Erie, and creator of a course and author of a book on the mathematics, statistics, and probability of gambling.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Make sure to check out David's Book Games, Gambling, and Probability: An Introduction to Mathematics

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Gambling Episode 3: Even More Casino Games

IMSI — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:00:58 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats intersect with the world of gambling. This episode is all about craps, blackjack, and poker. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by David Taylor mathematician, Assistant Vice President at SUNY Erie, and creator of a course and author of a book on the mathematics, statistics, and probability of gambling.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Make sure to check out David's Book Games, Gambling, and Probability: An Introduction to Mathematics

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Gambling Episode 2: Casino Games

IMSI — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:51:25 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats intersect with the world of gambling. This episode is all about casino slot machines and roulette. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by David Taylor mathematician, Assistant Vice President at SUNY Erie, and creator of a course and author of a book on the mathematics, statistics, and probability of gambling.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Make sure to check out David's Book Games, Gambling, and Probability: An Introduction to Mathematics

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Gambling Episode 1: Lotteries

IMSI — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 19:51:23 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats intersect with the world of gambling. This episode is all about Lotteries. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by David Taylor mathematician, Assistant Vice President at SUNY Erie, and creator of a course and author of a book on the mathematics, statistics, and probability of gambling.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Make sure to check out David's Book Games, Gambling, and Probability: An Introduction to Mathematics

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 6: Digital Twins

IMSI — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 16:02:00 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. This episode is all about Digital Twins. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Karen Willcox professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, Director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, and external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute and Anna Michalak founding Director of the Climate and Resilience Hub at the Carnegie Institution for Science and professor at the Stanford-Doerr School of Sustainability.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Toward predictive digital twins: From physics-based modeling to scientific machine learning Application of Digital Twins to Large-Scale Complex Systems Digital Twins Long Program Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins Digital twins in mechanical and aerospace engineering

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 5: Computation Imaging

IMSI — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:46:38 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. This episode is all about Computation Imaging. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Rebecca Willett the Worah Family Professor of Statistics and Computer Science in the Wallman Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago, Stanley Chan Elmore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Statistics Purdue University, and David Lindell Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Computer Science.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Panel Discussion: Computational Imaging: Who cares?

Wavefront Estimation: How to Prescribe Glasses for your Telescope?

Imaging Anytime Anywhere: Capturing Dynamic Scenes from Seconds to Picoseconds

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 4: Materials Science

IMSI — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 18:33:50 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. Our first episode is all about Computation Medicine. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Danny Perez, a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico, Logan Ward, a PhD computational scientist, and Jason Hattrick-Simpers, a professor of material science and engineering at the University of Toronto and a research scientist at Natural Resources Canada, CMAT Materials.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Diverse data generation for machine learning potentials

The Importance of Publishing Everything, and How MDF Can Help

Understanding and Mitigating Bias in Autonomous Materials Characterization and Discovery

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (bluesky) IMSI.institute (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 3: Fusion Energy

IMSI — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 13:23:38 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. Our third episode is all about Fusion Energy. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Andrew Christlieb, Professor of mathematics and computational science and engineering at Michigan State University and director for the Center of Hierarchical and Robust Modeling for Non-Equilibrium Transport, and Cristina Rea, principal research scientist here at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and leader of the Disruption Studies Group.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Open and FAIR Fusion for Machine Learning Applications

Predicting fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility with physics-informed deep learning

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 2: Computation Medicine

IMSI — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 18:33:38 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. Our first episode is all about Computation Medicine. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Yixiang Deng assistant professor at the University of Delaware in Department of Computer and Information Sciences and Fides Schwartz a radiologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital focusing on CT, computer tomography, imaging.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Exploring the Frontiers of Computational Medicine

Photon-counting CT yields superior abdominopelvic image quality at lower radiation and iodinated contrast doses

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Emerging Technologies Episode 1: Quantum Information Science

IMSI — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:25:05 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. In this season of Carry the Two we are going to be examining how math and stats is helping scientists, engineers, and industry develop new and emerging technologies. Our first episode is all about Quantum Computing and Information Science. Hosts Sam Hansen and Sadie Witkowski are joined by Ben Brown, researcher at IBM Quantum, and Yihui Quek, postdoc at MIT and incoming assistant professor at EPFL, Ecole Polytechnic Federal in Lausanne, for a discussion about quantum error correction and mitigation, as well as Dylan Temples, a Lederman Postdoctoral Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Lab, who works at the intersection of dark matter direct detection and quantum information science.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links: Mitigating errors in logical qubits Surviving as a quantum computer in a noisy world Design directions in qubit-based dark matter sensors

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Lars Peter Hansen on Uncertainties in the Age of Climate Change

IMSI — Thu, 01 May 2025 18:53:18 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our sixth, and final, guest is Lars Peter Hansen. Lars is the 2013 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and a Professor at the University of Chicago with appointments at the Economics Department, the Booth School of Business, as well as the Statistics Department.. Lars joined us at IMSI for a workshop on Economic Impacts of Climate Change where he presented a talk titled: How should Climate Change Uncertainty Impact Social Valuation and Policy? Host Sam Hansen joined Lars for a conversation about the research in his talk and Lars’s time at IMSI.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Lars Peter Hansen

Article: How should Climate Change Uncertainty Impact Social Valuation and Policy

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (Bluesky) @imsi.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Rose Yu on Automatic Symmetry Discovery

IMSI — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 19:18:41 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our fifth guest is Rose Yu. Rose is an associate professor in the computer science department of UC San Diego, and is also affiliated with the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. Rose joined us at IMSI for a workshop on Learning Collective Variables and Coarse Grained Models where she presented a talk titled Automatic Symmetry Discovery from Data. Host Sam Hansen joined Rose for a conversation about the research in her talk and Rose’s time at IMSI.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Rose Yu

IMSI Talk: Automatic Symmetry Discovery from Data

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (Bluesky) @imsi.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Kunal Marwaha on Quantum Advantage

IMSI — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 15:40:35 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our fourth guest isKunal Marwaha, a PhD student at the University of Chicago studying quantum computing. Kunal joined us at IMSI for a workshop on The Power of Near-Term Quantum Experiments where he presented a talk titled On the promise of quantum advantage for classical optimization. So, without further ado let’s get into my conversation with Kunal Marwaha. Host Sam Hansen joined Kunal for a conversation about the research in his talk and Kunal’s time at IMSI.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Kunal Marwaha

IMSI Talk: On the promise of quantum advantage for classical optimization

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (Bluesky) @imsi.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Frank Wolak on Engineering and Electricity Market Design

IMSI — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 14:35:30 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our third guest is Frank Wolak, a professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University who teaches courses in energy and environmental economics and has been involved in the electricity industry and power systems for 25 years.. Frank joined us at IMSI for a workshop on The Architecture of Green Energy Systems: The Underlying Problem and Its Challenges where he presented a talk titled The Engineering Economics of Low Carbon Electricity Market Design. Host Sam Hansen joined Frank for a talk about the research in his talk and Frank’s time at IMSI.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Frank Wolak

IMSI Talk: The Engineering Economics of Low Carbon Electricity Market Design

Energy Market Game

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Maria Chan on ML for Material Structures

IMSI — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:57:30 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our second guest is Maria Chan,a scientist at Argonnne National Laboratory working at the Center for Nanoscale Materials who focuses on computational research involving materials in chemistry using a combination of physics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Maria joined us at IMSI for a workshop on Machine Learning in Electronic Structure Theory where she presented a talk titled Theory-informed AI/ML for Microscopy & Spectroscopy. Host Sam Hansen joined Maria for a talk about the research in her talk and Maria’s time at IMSI.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Maria Chan

IMSI Talk: Theory-informed AI/ML for Microscopy & Spectroscopy

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Thibaut Mastrolia on Auction Markets

IMSI — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 19:16:55 +0000

Welcome to Carry the Two, the podcast about how math and statistics impact the world around us from the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation. While we’re in between our more in-depth seasons, we like to bring you something a little different in mini-season format. And for this mini season, we are going to highlight some of the amazing researchers who have presented at IMSI over the past year. Our first guest is Thibaut Mastrolia, an assistant professor at the Industrial Engineering and Operation Research Department at UC Berkeley Thibaut joined us at IMSI for a workshop on Decision Making and Uncertainty where he presented a talk titled Recent advances in auction markets design and regulation policies. Host Sam Hansen joined Thibaut for a talk about the research in this talk and how Thibaut’s time at IMSI has helped move it forward.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Thibaut Mastrolia

IMSI Talk: Recent advances in auction markets design and regulation policies

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Polling

IMSI — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:39:19 +0000

We in the United States are deep in the middle of a major national election, and over half of the world’s population also have elections in 2024. This is why Carry the Two is going to focus on the intersection of mathematics and democracy for our new season.

In this, the sixth and final episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we dig into both how surveys and polls are conducted and how they are reported. For the former we are joined by David Dutwin Senior Vice President at NORC and Chief Scientist of Amerispeak and for the latter by Nathaniel Rakich Senior Editor and Senior Elections Analyst at FiveThirtyEight.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Political Numbers & Statistics

IMSI — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 19:35:42 +0000

In this episode, the fifth episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we dig into political numbers and statistics. Helping Sam and Sadie do the digging is Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, FRS, OBE, emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Cambridge, former Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, past Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, and current non-executive Director at the UK Statistics Authority. David discusses why it is so important to be a trustworthy communicator, the watchdog work the UK’s Office of Statistics Regulation is engaging in, and his personal manifesto for those who share political numbers and statistics.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

David Spiegelhalter

UK Statistics Authority

Art of Statistics

Art of Uncertainty

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Political Geography

IMSI — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 13:49:34 +0000

In this episode, the fourth episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we dig into two stories about the intersection of political geography and mathematics. The first story comes from Ranthony Clark and is about her work with the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group around identifying communities of interest, with a focus on her in Ohio alongside CAIR Ohio, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State. The second story is about polling sites in cities, and the places in those cities that may not be covered as well as they should be. We hear from Mason Porter and Jiajie (Jerry) Luo, two members of the team, about how they used topological data analysis to find these holes in coverage.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Ranthony Clark

Collaborators for the data science team: Erin Chambers, Ranthony A. Clark, Moon Duchin, Parker Edwards, JN Matthews, Anthony Pizzimenti, Chanel Richardson, Parker Rule, and Ari Stern

Communities of Interest Paper

Persistent Homology for Resource Coverage: A Case Study of Access to Polling Sites Authors: Abigail Hickok, Benjamin Jarman, Michael Johnson, Jiajie Luo, Mason A. Porter

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Political Coalitions

IMSI — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 19:49:20 +0000

In this, the third episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak to Andrea Mock, Gunnar Carlsson, Samin Aref, and Zachary Neal. We dig into what mathematics has to say about the stability of political coalitions, how mediators can make coalitions more stable, the ways in which Democrats and Republicans can be clustered together in the House of Representatives based on their votes, and the hidden third coalition of really successful legislators in the House that co-sponsorship data can illuminate.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Political structures and the topology of simplicial complexes

Andrea Mock & Ismar Volić

Gunnar Carlsson

The topology of politics: voting connectivity in the US House of Representatives

Pek Yee Lum, Alan Lehmann, Gurjeet Singh, Tigran Ishkhanov, Gunnar Carlsson, & Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson

Samin Aref

Zachary Neal

Identifying hidden coalitions in the US House of Representatives by optimally partitioning signed networks based on generalized balance

Samin Aref & Zachary Neal

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics & Representation

IMSI — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 19:21:32 +0000

In this episode, the second episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak again with mathematician Ismar Volić of Wellesley College and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy and Theodore R. Johnson, a scholar of Black electoral politics, a military veteran, and a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. We dig into what mathematics has to say about how the USA apportions members of the House of Representatives to states, learn how a fight between Jefferson and Hamilton over rounding led to the first presidential veto, and discuss different techniques for reforming the Electoral College.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Ismar Volić

Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation

Institute for Mathematics and Democracy

Theodore R. Johnson

A Failing Grade for the Electoral College

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Mathematics and Voting

IMSI — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:06:28 +0000

IMSI is very proud to announce that Carry the Two is back and with a new co-host, IMSI’s new Director of Communications and Engagement Sam Hansen!

In this episode, the first episode of our mathematics and democracy season, we speak with mathematician Ismar Volić of Wellesley College and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy and Victoria Mooers, an economics PhD student at Columbia University. We discuss what mathematics has to say about our current plurality voting system, how switching to preference ranking votings systems could limit polarization and negative campaigning, and why too much delegation causes problems for those pushing for Liquid Democracy.

Find our transcript here: Google Doc or .txt file

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Ismar Volić

Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation

Institute for Mathematics and Democracy

Victoria Mooers

Liquid Democracy. Two Experiments on Delegation in Voting

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348

Carry the Two Farewell (for now)

IMSI — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 15:59:39 +0000

Find our transcript here: LINK

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Sadie Witkowski: https://www.sadiewit.com/, @SadieWit

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Caitlin Parrish and Allyson Ettinger on AI & the WGA Strike

IMSI — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 16:03:44 +0000

In this classic episode, we explore how GPT-3, a free online natural language processing artificial intelligence by Open AI, does and doesn’t work. Make sure to stick around until the end for an update on how AI is a core demand between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

GPT-3 takes advantage of a whole new method of artificial intelligence research, called neural nets, to create plays, write code, and even roleplay as a historical figure. But what are the limitations to this kind of AI? University of Chicago professor Allyson Ettinger walks us through how GPT-3 manages to sound so human and where and how it fails in interesting ways.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

When GPT-3 accidentally lies: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-large-language-model-ai-only-survived-three-days-gpt-3-science/

Microsoft’s chatbot that went racist: https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist

Is GPT-3 a replacement or tool for journalists: https://contently.net/2022/12/15/trends/chatgpt/

Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/

AO3 and data scraping: https://www.transformativeworks.org/ai-and-data-scraping-on-the-archive/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Caitlin Parrish: @caitcrime

Follow Allyson Ettinger: https://allenai.org/team, @AllysonEttinger

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Jamie Barty on Visual Effects in Television

IMSI — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 14:32:56 +0000

Were you impressed by the underwater scenes in Avatar 2? Have you spent hours trying to figure out how they built the ice wall in Game of Thrones? Everything from big effects like these to smaller hidden visual effects like creating a skyline for an indoor set fall under the purview of visual effects. In this episode of Carry the Two, we get a behind-the-scenes tour of how Fuse FX effects supervisor Jamie Barty from I’m a Virgo leads a team to achieve these effects - and the copious amounts of mathematics that come into play!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Fuse FX: https://fusefx.com/

Course on the mathematics behind visual effects: https://www.fxphd.com/details/215/

I’m a Virgo: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13649510/

Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Jamie Barty: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4495160/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Tara Kerin on The Last of Us

IMSI — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:39:43 +0000

Could a fungus really wipe out the majority of humans, as shown in the HBO (Max) series The Last of Us? How realistic is the show’s portrayal of epidemiology? Guest and project scientist at UCLA, Tara Kerin explores these questions and how statistics are a core tool in her field of research.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

The San Diego Comic Con International masquerade ball: https://www.comic-con.org/cci/newsletter/sunday

How to calculate R0 (R-naught): https://globalhealth.harvard.edu/understanding-predictions-what-is-r-naught/

Tara’s work on HIV: https://cch.ucla.edu/about-atn-cares/

More on R0: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/1/17-1901_article

More on the science in The Last of Us: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/17/1157842018/the-science-that-spawned-fungal-fears-in-hbos-the-last-of-us

Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tara Kerin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarakerin/, @tarakerin

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Robert Rosner and Paul Wilson on Oppenheimer

IMSI — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:49:42 +0000

The world, and the US in particular, have a complicated history with nuclear fission. Splitting atoms led to both the development of nuclear energy and weapons with catastrophic power. In the film Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan explores these issues.

Here we expand this examination to the seminal work done in the Midwest. In this episode of Carry the Two, we speak with nuclear engineer from the University of Wisconsin, Paul Wilson, and University of Chicago physicist, Robert Rosner. They unveil how the University of Chicago was a key research site that tested theories of Oppenheimer and his colleagues, allowing the United States to win the race in building a nuclear weapon.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

The first nuclear reactor, explained: https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/first-nuclear-reactor-explained

American Prometheus (novel that Oppenheimer is based on): https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kai-bird-and-martin-j-sherwin

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/

Nuclear energy and cutting carbon emissions: https://www.wpr.org/nuclear-key-key-cutting-carbon-emissions-combat-climate-change

Rosner elected president of American Physical Society: https://chicagomaroon.com/28020/news/theoretical-physicist-robert-rosner-elected-presid/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Robert Rosner: https://astro.uchicago.edu/people/robert-rosner.php

Follow Paul Wilson: https://directory.engr.wisc.edu/neep/faculty/wilson_paul

The Science and Entertainment Exchange: scienceandentertainmentexchange.org

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Kevin Grazier on Orbital Dynamics in Foundation

IMSI — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 16:52:00 +0000

If you’ve seen the first season of Apple TV’s Foundation, you probably noticed how heavily the show relies on ideas based in mathematics and statistics. However, while the idea of a field of research called psycho-history seems far-fetched, some of the show's scenes are much closer to reality than you might realize.

In this episode, we hear from planetary physicist and television science advisor Kevin Grazier about how researchers can help advise TV projects and what that actually looks like.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43939-foundation-chronological-order

Foundation (tv series) season 1 promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4QYV5GTz7c

The Cassini mission: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/

Orbital dynamics: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-0802-8_10

Science and Entertainment Exchange: http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Kevin Grazier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-grazier-1057792/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Summer Hiatus

IMSI — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 14:09:18 +0000

We're taking a short break to prepare for our next series of episodes, looking at mathematics and statistics in Hollywood. So stay tuned!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Dan Cooley on the Colorado Fire Season

IMSI — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 13:16:22 +0000

Predicting weather is already a difficult statistical challenge, but it becomes even more complex when trying to predict rare weather events. Dan Cooley, a professor in the statistics department at Colorado State University, uses extreme value analysis to model these rare events. In today’s episode, we ask Dan how his work can help explain the changing frequency and severity of wildfires in Colorado and how climate change might be playing a key role.

Don’t forget to listen to Dan’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the episode here: LINK

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Hear Dan’s talk for IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/transformed-linear-methods-for-multivariate-extremes-and-application-to-climate/

More on the Fire Weather Index: https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/pms437/cffdrs/fire-weather-index-system

Extreme Value Theory: https://towardsdatascience.com/extreme-value-theory-in-a-nutshell-with-various-applications-3260b6a84316

Previous Carry the Two episode on 100-year floods: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-smith-on-100-year-floods/id1629115184?i=1000574780329

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Dan Cooley: https://www.stat.colostate.edu/~cooleyd/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Jace Steiner.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Angel Hsu on Urbanization and Climate Change

IMSI — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 13:32:39 +0000

Researchers become interested in their fields through all sorts of unique paths. Today’s guest, Angel Hsu of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, came to climate research from a public policy background. She uses her work to help inform local communities how policy decisions affect different groups’ risk to extreme heat and the heat island effect. Specifically, she uses local and global data sets to track heat stress across city neighborhoods and show how those can differ based on neighborhood income.

Don’t forget to listen to Angel’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Angel: LINK

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Hear Angel’s talk for IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/detecting-and-attributing-disparities-in-urban-heat/

Data Driver Lab website: http://datadrivenlab.org/urban/

Carry the Two’s previous episode on Angel’s work: https://www.imsi.institute/podcast/tiffany-christian-on-the-heat-island-effect/

Carry the Two’s previous episode on community science: https://www.imsi.institute/podcast/kathryn-leonard-and-axel-carlier-on-crowdsourcing-for-math-research/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Angel Hsu: @ecoangelhsu, https://publicpolicy.unc.edu/person/hsu-angel/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Jace Steiner.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Matt Huber on Modeling Paleoclimates

IMSI — Tue, 30 May 2023 14:11:14 +0000

Today we speak with a non-mathematician who uses mathematical tools to understand our planet’s past climates and what they might be able to tell us about our future. Matt Huber, from Purdue University, tells us how the paleoclimate had sudden, rapid shifts in the climate that our current climate models aren’t good at predicting. So, if we’re on the precipice of another rapid shift, we might need to start employing different models.

And don’t forget to listen to Matt’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Matt: LINK

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Hear Matt’s talk for IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/the-dynamics-and-impacts-of-moist-heat-stress/

Younger Dryas event in Day After Tomorrow: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/25/metro/researchers-say-ancient-day-after-tomorrow-scenario-could-have-been-caused-by-melting-icebergs/

What is paleoclimatology: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/paleoclimatology-RL/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Matt Huber: https://www.eaps.purdue.edu/people/profile/huberm.html

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Jessica Buser.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Kristie Ebi on Climate Change & Global Health

IMSI — Tue, 23 May 2023 13:10:47 +0000

Turn on the news during the spring and you’ll hear how seasonal allergies are being made worse by climate change. But it turns out the seasonal sniffles are some of the smallest health consequences of our rapidly shifting climate. Droughts and floods don’t just damage the local ecosystem, they also have real, measurable effects on human health. In this episode of Carry the Two, we hear from University of Washington’s Kristie Ebi, who has helped lead research on the health impacts of climate change.

And don’t forget to listen to Kristie’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Kristie: LINK HERE

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Kristie’s presentation at IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/detection-and-attribution-of-the-health-impacts-of-climate-change/

Climate change and allergies: https://abc7chicago.com/pollen-allergies-spring-allergy-climate-central-report/12931026/

Center for Health and the Global Environment: https://www.washington.edu/research/research-centers/center-health-global-environment-change/

Kristie’s shared Nobel Peace Prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2007/summary/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Kristie Ebi: @kristie_ebi, https://globalhealth.washington.edu/faculty/kristie-ebi

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Katrina Jackson.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

And don’t forget to listen to Kristie’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Kristie: LINK

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Kristie’s presentation at IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/detection-and-attribution-of-the-health-impacts-of-climate-change/

Climate change and allergies: https://abc7chicago.com/pollen-allergies-spring-allergy-climate-central-report/12931026/

Center for Health and the Global Environment: https://www.washington.edu/research/research-centers/center-health-global-environment-change/

Kristie’s shared Nobel Peace Prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2007/summary/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Kristie Ebi: @kristie_ebi, https://globalhealth.washington.edu/faculty/kristie-ebi

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Katrina Jackson.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Jane Baldwin on Modeling Climate Change Hazards

IMSI — Tue, 16 May 2023 15:18:58 +0000

We are continuing our collaboration between Carry the Two and the American Geophysical Union’s Third Pod from the Sun with another episode!

Jane Baldwin’s research centers issues of equity when it comes to understanding climate change’s impact on the global population. In this episode, we hear how Jane gets clever with data sources to better understand risk and vulnerability to tropical cyclones in the Philippines and discusses the importance of building useful climate models.

And don’t forget to listen to Jane’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Jane: https://thirdpodfromthesun.com/2023/05/12/solving-for-climate-do-go-chasing-hurricanes/

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Jane’s presentation at IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/the-missing-links-in-projecting-impacts-from-extreme-events/

Jane’s Philippine’s study: https://www.janebaldw.in/publication/baldwin-direct-2019/ & https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wcas/aop/WCAS-D-22-0049.1/WCAS-D-22-0049.1.xml

The origin of “All models are wrong…”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Jane Baldwin: https://www.janebaldw.in/, @janewbaldwin

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Devin Reese.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Maike Sonnewald on Modeling Oceanic Currents

IMSI — Tue, 09 May 2023 13:52:37 +0000

Welcome to the first episode of Carry the Two’s collaboration with the American Geophysical Union’s Third Pod from the Sun!

In this episode, we get our feet wet with physical oceanographer, Maike Sonnewald. Maike explains how the ocean currents interplay with our warming atmosphere and what that means for our climate. Using machine learning to build climate models, Maike analyzes how things like greenhouse gases are warming our oceans and changing the pattern of currents.

And don’t forget to listen to Maike’s work through a geophysical lens, over at Third Pod from the Sun!

Check out the AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun with Maike: https://thirdpodfromthesun.com/2023/05/05/wave-and-means/

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Hear Maike’s talk for IMSI’s Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/elucidating-ecological-complexity-unsupervised-learning-determines-global-marine-eco-provinces/

Upcoming paper from Maike: The Southern Ocean supergyre: a unifying dynamical framework identified by machine learning. In press, Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

A review paper on ML in oceanography: Bridging theory, simulation, and observations of the global ocean using Machine Learning, 2021, Environmental Research Letters

Paper on the North Atlantic: Revealing the impact of global warming on climate modes using transparent machine learning. 2021, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

For a math and AI twist on predicting ocean dynamics: Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Bayesian Neural Networks: Towards trustworthy predictions of ocean dynamics. 2022, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Maike Sonnewald: https://msonnewald.com/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme. Special thanks to Third Pod’s producer Anupama Chandrasekaran.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Kathryn Leonard and Axel Carlier on Crowdsourcing for Math Research

IMSI — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:43:43 +0000

We’re still celebrating Mathematical and Statistical Awareness Month here at Carry the Two. This time, we’re taking a look at how anyone can get involved with research and help move mathematics (or statistics) forward. We explore the differences between citizen science, community science, and crowd sourcing and how one group of researchers used an international scavenger hunt to collect data.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Peer-reviewed article of today’s paper: The 2D shape structure dataset: A user annotated open access database - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0097849316300528

Follow-up research:

T. Blanc-Beyne, G. Morin, K. Leonard, A. Carlier, S. Hahmann, A Salience Measure for 3D Shape Decomposition and Sub-parts Classification, Graphical Models 99:22-30, September 2018.

K. Leonard, G. Morin, S. Hahmann, A. Carlier, A 2D shape structure for decomposition and part similarity, International Conference on Pattern Recognition, p. 3216-3221, Dec 2016.

Other examples of community/citizen science/crowdsourcing: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.4300

NASA's Harp Project: https://listen.spacescience.org/

National Geographic’s collection of community science projects: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/citizen-science-projects/

Collection of Community Science Projects in a searchable database: https://scistarter.org/finder?active=true

Peer-reviewed article on crowdsourcing in science: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11846-022-00602-z

Peer-reviewed article on community science:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901119300942

History of GISH items: https://gishwheshistorian.tumblr.com/2022items

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Kathryn Leonard: https://www.oxy.edu/academics/faculty/kathryn-leonard

Follow Axel Carlier: https://ipal.cnrs.fr/axel-carlier-personal-page/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI...

Benson Farb on Math and Mentorship

IMSI — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 13:32:29 +0000

Happy Mathematical and Statistical Awareness Month! To celebrate, hosts Sadie and Ian decided to take a peek behind the curtain and see what it is that pure mathematicians do all day. This episode follows a conversation with University of Chicago Math Professor Benson Farb as he explains how he approaches mentoring future mathematicians and what got him into his field in the first place. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot more about luck and timing than you’d expect!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

UChicago Math Pizza Seminar: https://math.uchicago.edu/~pizzaseminar/

Math Genealogy Tree: https://www.mathgenealogy.org/index.php

Stereotype Threat Research: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-psych-073115-103235

More on Benson: https://news.uchicago.edu/profile/benson-farb

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Benson Farb: https://mathematics.uchicago.edu/people/profile/benson-farb/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Spring Hiatus

IMSI — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 14:08:37 +0000

We're taking a short break to prepare for the rest of Season 2 and our collaboration with AGU’s Third Pod from the Sun. So stay tuned!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Jude Higdon on Small Town Policing

IMSI — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 15:03:13 +0000

We have another guest host this episode, with Jude Higdon. Jude is the Chief Information Officer at Bennington College and co-founder of the QSIDE Institute. Jude led the charge during IMSI’s Research Collaboration Workshop that was aimed at addressing small town policing.

Using the road map laid out by the Small Town Policing Accountability (SToPA) Lab, Jude’s team developed a toolkit for procuring, structuring, and analyzing policing data in small towns that lack the resources and systems to make their own data public. By the end of a month at IMSI, Jude’s team had a prototype that can empower small community-based participatory action research.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

QSIDE Institute: https://qsideinstitute.org/

Small Town Policing Accountability previous research: https://bigdata.duke.edu/projects/small-town-policing-accountability/

Submit a Research Collaboration Workshop proposal to IMSI: https://www.imsi.institute/proposals/collaboration/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Jude Higdon: https://www.bennington.edu/about/college-leadership/jude-higdon

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Carrie Diaz Eaton on Community-Driven Data Science

IMSI — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 15:22:06 +0000

Joining the helm as cohost, Bates Professor Carrie Diaz Eaton leads this week’s exploration of how to build a data science tool, not just for local activists, but with them. We begin with how the partnership between the environmental justice leadership program Nuevas Voces and Carrie’s team of interdisciplinary math researchers first met. Then, we hear from the members of Carrie’s Research Collaboration Workshop team as they worked at a breakneck pace here at IMSI to have a completed prototype by the end of a month.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Listen to Carrie’s first feature on Carry the Two: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/carrie-diaz-eaton-on-equity-in-policy-documents/id1629115184?i=1000567232994

Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council: https://wrwc.org/wp/

Nuevas Voces: https://wrwc.org/wp/nuevas-voces-graduation/

Submit a Research Collaboration Workshop proposal to IMSI: https://www.imsi.institute/proposals/collaboration/

Providence VECINA: https://math-data-justice-collaborative.github.io/fuertes-pvd/#1

Example similar to VECINA: https://chichives.com/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Carrie Diaz Eaton: @mathprofcarrie

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Sound effect from pixabay.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Heather Zheng on Privacy and AI

IMSI — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:50:00 +0000

What if you had a way to upload as many selfies as you wanted to instagram or facebook, and still protect yourself from facial recognition software? Turns out, that’s not a pipe dream! In fact, the SAND Lab (Security, Algorithms,Networking and Data) at the University of Chicago is developing all sorts of tools and techniques to help us protect our digital privacy.

Joining us in this episode, Heather Zheng, PhD from the SAND lab, walks us through both examples of current data privacy concerns, as well as new potential threats to privacy. But don’t worry, for each concern, Heather is able to provide a solution to keep your data private.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

(Guy) Fawkes image/photo masking: http://sandlab.cs.uchicago.edu/fawkes/

Research about tracking you through your home with wi-fi: http://sandlab.cs.uchicago.edu/adversarialwifi/

Research on recovering your key strokes: https://sandlab.cs.uchicago.edu/keystroke/

Hidden Markov models explained: https://brilliant.org/wiki/hidden-markov-models/

Allyson’s episode about GPT-3: [LINK]

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Heather Zheng: https://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~htzheng/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Allyson Ettinger on GPT-3

IMSI — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:37:00 +0000

How can a teacher know if a student actually wrote their book report, or if a computer did it? Are AI writers coming for journalists’ jobs? What does it mean when a language processing model can write its own computer code upon request? These are all questions currently sparked by GPT-3, a free online natural language processing artificial intelligence by Open AI.

This isn’t your dimestore chatbot. GPT-3 takes advantage of a whole new method of artificial intelligence research, called neural nets, to create plays, write code, and even roleplay as a historical figure. But what are the limitations to this kind of AI? In this episode of Carry the Two, University of Chicago professor Allyson Ettinger walks us through how GPT-3 manages to sound so human and where and how it fails in interesting ways.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Use natural language processing to talk with a TV character or historical figure: https://beta.character.ai/

Chat bot using GPT-3.5: https://chat.openai.com/chat

Find out how you can chat with GPT-3: https://lifearchitect.ai/how-do-i-talk-to-gpt/

When GPT-3 accidentally lies: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-large-language-model-ai-only-survived-three-days-gpt-3-science/

Microsoft’s chatbot that went racist: https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist

Is GPT-3 a replacement or tool for journalists: https://contently.net/2022/12/15/trends/chatgpt/

Undark’s interview with GPT-3 on truth & journalism: https://undark.org/2023/01/07/interview-a-conversation-on-truth-and-fiction-with-chatgpt/

Previous Carry the Two episode on statistical language learning with Ben Reuveni: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ben-reuveni-on-statistical-learning/id1629115184?i=1000577827727

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Allyson Ettinger: https://linguistics.uchicago.edu/people/allyson-ettinger, @AllysonEttinger

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sound effects from pixabay.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Tandy Warnow on Evolutionary Trees

IMSI — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:43:00 +0000

Darwin first proposed evolution as a way that species change and diverge to fill niches in their environment. This observation led to the first, rudimentary species trees, showing ancestors and descendants across genetic lineages.

But this work is far from settled. As we continue to collect more and richer data sets from species, whether they be plants, bacteria, or mammals like ourselves, researchers need new and better methods for building phylogenetic trees. That’s where Tandy Warnow, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, comes in.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Tandy’s talk for IMSI’s workshop, Eliciting Structure in Genomics Data: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/theory-and-practice-for-large-scale-phylogeny-estimation/

History of the ‘Tree of Life’: https://www.nature.com/articles/540038a

Multispecies coalescent process: https://academic.oup.com/book/26340/chapter-abstract/194642189?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Gene duplication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_by_gene_duplication

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tandy Warnow: https://tandy.cs.illinois.edu/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Mike Menzel on NASA's JWST Launch

IMSI — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 15:42:00 +0000

Imagine trying to unfold 5 layered, thin metallic sheets, each the size of a tennis court without tearing or snagging the material. Now imagine doing it in the vacuum of space, at a distance much farther than the moon, and that a multimillion dollar project relies on your success. That provides a bit of perspective for the massive undertaking that was the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST).

In this episode of Carry the Two, we hear from NASA lead systems engineer, Mike Menzel, all about designing and testing the solar shield for JWST.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

JWST’s orbit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html

General physics of the JWST: https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-james-webb-space-telescope/

Video of JWST unfolding (referenced in the episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg-YI0T-4Mk

Coordinating the 18 mirrors: https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/wavefront.html

What is a Lagrange point: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/754/what-is-a-lagrange-point/

Why hexagons are a great shape (for telescope mirrors & other uses): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOifuHs6eY

Controversy surrounding the name of JWST: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html

JWST’s images of Neptune: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/new-webb-image-captures-clearest-view-of-neptune-s-rings-in-decades

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Mike Menzel: https://webb.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/menzel.html

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions & original score for Star Trek by Alexander Courage.

Sound effect by beetpro at pixabay.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Winter Hiatus

IMSI — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 15:00:08 +0000

We're taking a short break to prepare for the new year and season 2. So stay tuned!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Tiffany Christian on City-Friendly Animal Species

IMSI — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 15:15:00 +0000

Our last episode featuring Statistician-in-Residence Tiffany Christian (at least for now), dives into sampling methods. How can we track animal populations, especially those who share our urban environment with us? Ecologists and statisticians have found methods to track everything from coyotes to Canadian geese and can see how their populations are changing over time.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Video explaining the statistics of capture mark recapture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=240806aPHVg

Collection of examples using capture mark recapture: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eesc/science/capture-mark-recapture-science?qt-science_center_objects=0

Urban coyote research: https://urbancoyoteresearch.com/coyote-info/basics-studying-coyotes

Sampling methodology: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/designing-studies/sampling-methods-stats/a/sampling-methods-review

Smithsonian story about pack rat research: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeological-treasures-hidden-rat-nests-180973544/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tiffany Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-christian-733137b5/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Tiffany Christian on Wetland Monitoring

IMSI — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:36:00 +0000

Wetlands like the marshes located just outside the city of New Orleans, LA are often overlooked, but these ecosystems provide many vital services. Wetlands, like all ecosystems, are under threat by climate change and particularly the increased tropical storms and hurricanes that tear across our coasts. So how can we monitor vast areas of wetlands to check their health, year after year? Statistician-in-Residence Tiffany Christian explains how researchers can remotely monitor wetland health and spot disruption of annual growth cycles.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Review of storm effects on wetlands: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1872203215000657#:~:text=Impacts%20of%20tropical%20storms%20on%20wetland%20landscape%20changes,change%20wetland%20morphology%20and%20elevation

Using remote sensing to detect changes in wetlands growing season: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380015002197

Overview of wetland health in Louisana and impact of MRGO: https://mississippiriverdelta.org/coalition-unveils-findings-on-mrgo-ecosystem-recovery-15-years-after-hurricane-katrina/ and the associated white paper https://mrgomustgo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MRGO-White-Paper-10-01-2020.pdf

Importance of wetlands: https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/why-are-wetlands-important#:~:text=Wetlands%20and%20People,our%20use%20at%20no%20cost.

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tiffany Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-christian-733137b5/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Moon Duchin on Voting & Electoral Districts

IMSI — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 13:42:00 +0000

If you live in the United States, have you already voted? If not, go vote!

The bedrock of American democracy is the idea of citizens voting for candidates to represent their interests. However, determining how to cluster voters into districts has always been a fraught topic, particularly when it comes to ensuring that minorities have representation. How can we create the most fair electoral districts? How can we use geometric topographical analysis to recognize gerrymandering strategies like “packing” and “cracking”? We brought in Tufts University mathematician and founder of the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group Redistricting Lab Moon Duchin to help us discuss these pressing issues.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Duchin’s collaboration about ranked choice voting: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3778021

Brief review of Duchin’s scientific paper: https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/evaluating-the-effects-of-ranked-choice-voting/the-future-is-proportional-improving-minority-representation-through-new-electoral-systems-gerdus-benade-ruth-buck-moon-duchin-dara-gold-and-thomas-weighill/

Quanta’s interview with Duchin: https://www.quantamagazine.org/moon-duchin-on-fair-voting-and-random-walks-20200407/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Moon Duchin: https://math.tufts.edu/people/faculty/moon-duchin

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Tiffany Christian on Invasive Species

IMSI — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 15:28:00 +0000

Typical invasive species that pop to mind tend to be large animals like the common carp in the Mississippi River, or species obviously detrimental to their non-native habitat like zebra mussels in the Great Lakes. But what about smaller species that are difficult to spot and that are located in remote areas of the country? It turns out, researchers can use statistical methods to help assess remote ecosystems that may be in danger. In the case of today’s topic, we take a look at the invasive wooly adelgid in the Appalachian mountains.

Remember, for the rest of this mini season, we have a recurring guest joining us! Meet Carry the Two’s Statistician-in-Residence, Tiffany Christian! She’s a PhD student in the Statistics department at Northwestern University and will be leading us through some fascinating research.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Find the research we discuss in this episode here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112713008219

Learn about the topics covered in IMSI’s fall program, Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/activities/confronting-global-climate-change/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tiffany Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-christian-733137b5/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Tiffany Christian on the Heat Island Effect

IMSI — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 13:42:00 +0000

Have you noticed how summer days seem so much hotter in the city center as compared to the burbs or out in the country? Part of this is due to the “heat island effect,” where heat absorbing materials like concrete and asphalt make areas that are less green feel much hotter. As it turns out, even in big cities, not all neighborhoods are equally affected… But why?

To help answer this question and for the rest of this mini season, we have a recurring guest joining us! Meet Carry the Two’s Statistician-in-Residence, Tiffany Christian! She’s a PhD student in the Statistics department at Northwestern University and will be leading us through some fascinating research.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Find the research we discuss in this episode here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22799-5%5C

Learn about the topics covered in IMSI’s fall program, Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/activities/confronting-global-climate-change/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tiffany Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-christian-733137b5/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Wilson Cunningham on Math, Baseball, and the Cubs

IMSI — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:33:00 +0000

For this episode, host Sadie Witkowski goes a bit off-script. Sadie is joined by sports reporter Jon Zaghloul to interview rookie Cubs pitcher and applied math University of Chicago undergraduate Wilson Cunningham. This conversation ranges from interests in mathematics and statistics to applying those statistics to baseball.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

University of Chicago’s story about Wilson’s baseball career: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/cubs-prospect-pitcher-wilson-cunningham-balances-rigorous-uchicago-college-education-baseball-training

Chicago Tribune’s story about Wilson’s baseball career: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-university-chicago-cubs-baseball-rookie-pitcher-20220723-66rzhlqhuredta67nchmfcg7xy-story.html

Discover more about UChicago’s Computational and Applied Mathematics Program: https://cam.uchicago.edu/

Hear more of Jon’s reporting: https://linktr.ee/jonzsports

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Wilson Cunningham: @wils_cunningham

Follow Jon Zaghloul: @JonZSports

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Mini Season Announcement

IMSI — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 14:43:00 +0000

We're taking a short break to prepare our mini season, as well as start working on season 2. So stay tuned!

Find our transcript here: LINK

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Ben Reuveni on Statistical Learning

IMSI — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:06:38 +0000

Even if you don’t think you’re good at math, it turns out that our brains are basically little statistical machines. Learning a new language, whether as a baby or as an adult attempting to become bilingual, means recognizing the underlying statistical patterns within language. Don’t believe us? Take it from the researchers at Duolingo!

We’re rounding out our first season of the show with Duolingo learning scientist Ben Reuveni, PhD.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Put your statistical learning to the test at www.duolingo.com

To learn more about language and how the folks at Duolingo think about it, check out https://blog.duolingo.com/

keep your eyes open for the recently announced Duolingo Math app https://www.duolingo.com/math

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Ben Reuveni: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-reuveni/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sharon Di on Autonomous Vehicles

IMSI — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 15:26:00 +0000

Self-driving cars evoke an image of perfectly synchronized traffic moving through streets as all the vehicles coordinate with each other. Of course, this is a future vision and not the current state of autonomous vehicles. But the process of going from a few self-driving cars to a fully automated grid will be a slow process.

Sharon Di, traffic engineer and Columbia University researcher, is here to help explain how engineers and policymakers think about these issues.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Video of waymo car failing to merge: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sciencetech/video-1752896/Video-Waymos-self-driving-minivans-struggles-merge-left-lane.html

Arizona ring road experiment: http://csl.arizona.edu/content/dampening-traffic-waves-autonomous-vehicles

Academic review article about AV ring road studies: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3494577

Video of Sharon’s talk at IMSI: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/driving-and-routing-games-for-autonomous-vehicles-on-networks-a-mean-field-game-approach/

Video explainer on traffic and self-driving cars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

Check your feed to see previous episodes mentioned, including Dario on Honeybees and Merouane on 5G.

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Sharon Di: https://www.civil.columbia.edu/faculty/sharon-di

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Richard Smith on 100-year-floods

IMSI — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 14:07:00 +0000

Some rare weather events, like the 100-year-flood, are confusingly named. This is because 100 years refers to a statistical probability and not a guaranteed rate. That, combined with our changing climate, means predicting future weather events can be difficult. Thankfully, we have statistical tools to help us with this problem!

Sadie and Ian speak with Richard Smith about climate change, rare weather events, and how climate modeling works.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Learn about the topics covered in IMSI’s fall program, Confronting Global Climate Change: https://www.imsi.institute/activities/confronting-global-climate-change/

Watch Richard’s presentation on detection and attribution for spatial extremes: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/detection-and-attribution-for-spatial-extremes/

Thanks to the Texas Tribune for their reporting on the 2021 winter storm and Hurricane Harvey. Specifically,

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/17/texas-winter-storm-2021-stories/

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/01/06/tide-high-wading-through-hurricane-harveys-damage-audio/

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Richard Smith: https://rls.sites.oasis.unc.edu/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Merouane Debbah on 5G

IMSI — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:21:00 +0000

5G technologies have long been the subject of concerns and conspiracy theories, especially because many 5G towers rolled out around the same time as the start of the COVID19 pandemic. This episode’s guest, Merouane Debbah, has heard all sorts of stories because of his research. Merouane uses math to study wireless communication and how to improve cell phone technology, including 5G (and 6G!) networks.

In this episode, Sadie and Ian talk about the history of wireless technology, the future of AI, and the math behind it all.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

https://www.imsi.institute/videos/distributed-network-design-in-the-era-of-deep-learning-part-1/

https://www.imsi.institute/videos/distributed-network-design-in-the-era-of-deep-learning-part-2/

(One of Merouane’s talks for IMSI - Introduction to Distributed Solutions)

Looking towards 6g and beyond: https://wired.me/technology/artificial-intelligence/tii-op-ed-ai-cross-center-unit/

Teaching machines to talk like humans: https://www.bizpreneurme.com/researchers-teaching-machines-to-talk-like-humans/

Scientific article on distributed signal processimg: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.00422

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Merouane Debbah: @debbahmerouane

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Dario Bauso on Honeybees

IMSI — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:48:00 +0000

Welcome to the second episode of Carry the Two! We’re the show for people who enjoy discovering hidden elements that impact our lives in the most unexpected ways.

In this episode, Ian and Sadie talk about how honeybees decide on new hive locations when they outgrow their current home. With the help of mathematician Dario Bauso, they learn how researchers use mean field games to model such decision-making and how it applies to other cases as well.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

https://www.imsi.institute/videos/mean-field-game-for-collective-decision-making-in-honeybees-via-switched-systems/ (Dario’s talk at IMSI)

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9529000

L. Stella, D. Bauso, P. Colaneri, "Mean-Field Games for Collective Decision-Making in Honeybees via Switched Systems", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, online doi: 10.1109/TAC.2021.3110166

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005109818305375

L. Stella and D. Bauso, “Bio-inspired evolutionary dynamics on complex networks under uncertain cross-inhibitory signals", Automatica vol. 100, 2019, pp. 61--66

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073216

D. Pais et al., "A mechanism for value-sensitive decision-making", PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 9, Sep. 2013

10.1109/LCSYS.2018.2838445

L. Stella and D. Bauso, “Bio-Inspired Evolutionary Game Dynamics in Symmetric and Asymmetric Models", IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2.3 2018 pp. 405--410

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Dario Bauso: @g_t_engineering

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to Dario Bauso, the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation, the University of Chicago, and the National Science Foundation. The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Carrie Diaz Eaton on Equity in Policy Documents

IMSI — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 07:17:00 +0000

Welcome to the very first episode of Carry the Two! We’re the show for people who enjoy discovering hidden elements that impact our lives in the most unexpected ways, and today we’re taking a look at how Carrie Diaz Eaton and colleagues use the tool set of mathematics to reflect on STEM (science, technology, engineering, & mathematics) policy documents. Specifically, Carrie used her mathematical know-how to quantify how a policy document from the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering was altered between the interim and final report. And, what those changes meant for issues of including diverse audiences in STEM.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5837t/

https://inquire.catapult.bates.edu/

https://www.msri.org/workshops/1022/schedules/30110 (MSRI video of her talk)

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Carrie Diaz Eaton: @mathprofcarrie

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to Carrie Diaz Eaton, the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation, the University of Chicago, and the National Science Foundation. The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.

Introducing: Carry the Two

IMSI — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 18:04:31 +0000

Check out our new mathematics and statistics podcast, Carry the Two, coming out on June 21st.