DDDI and PDRI/DevLab are hiring a data scientist! This is a unique opportunity at the intersection of data science, interdisciplinary research, and social impact. We’re looking for someone with a strong quantitative and machine learning background, as well as experience in spatial data analysis, to help drive our research projects and contribute to our data science for social good mission.
Interested or know someone who might be? Learn more and apply here.
The Data Driven Discovery Initiative and MindCORE will co-host a seminar featuring Mala Murthy on Friday, October 25th, at noon in the SAIL Room (111 Levin Building). Mala and her group work at the forefront of quantifying and modeling behavior, and causally linking behavior to brain-wide dynamics.
If you’re a graduate student or postdoc please also consider joining for Mala’s lunch immediately following the seminar. Email Jessica Marcus to sign up. Mala is a great person to chat with, so please do not hesitate to join.
Friday 10/25 at 12pm – DDDI + MindCORE Seminar
Title: Circuit Mechanisms for Dynamic Social Interaction
Speaker: Mala Murthy (Princeton, Professor of Neuroscience)
Organizers: MindCORE + DDDI
Date: Friday, October 25th, 2024
Time: 12pm – 1:15pm
Location: SAIL Room (111 Levin Building)
Abstract: Our research explores the neural mechanisms underlying flexibility during natural social interactions – how animals process dynamic sensory cues from a partner, make decisions, and pattern the appropriate action for the current context. During Drosophila social interactions, males produce time-varying songs via wing vibration, while females arbitrate mating decisions. We discovered that male song structure and intensity are continually sculpted by the movements of the female, over timescales ranging from tens of milliseconds to minutes, and we have investigated the underlying circuit mechanisms, from visual processing to the sequencing of actions. My lab has also investigated how song representations in the female brain drive changes in her behavior, again across multiple timescales. To uncover these mechanisms, we have developed new methods for quantification and computational modeling of behavior, as well as for brain-wide neural recording, and we combine these with the genetic and neural circuit tools of the Drosophila model system. We also recently generated the first whole-brain connectome for Drosophila, and I will discuss how we are leveraging this resource, to connect circuit architecture and activity at brain scale to behavior.
A pizza lunch will be served. Please bring your own beverage.
Join us for the second Penn Data Scientists Meetup! This event aims to bring together practitioners of data science, engineering, and visualization from across the University. There are many staff members across Penn who work in isolated clusters on these topics, and we are looking to foster collaboration between Penn’s various schools.
Please share this announcement with staff members who are involved in data science-adjacent activities, particularly those in roles such as Research Software Engineer, Systems Architect, or Data Scientist.
Event Details
Date: Wednesday, May 29th
Time: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Location: Glandt Forum (Singh Center for Nanotechnology)
Hosts: The Data Driven Discovery Initiative (DDDI), Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI) and Innovation in Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS)
Key topics include
- High-performance computing
- Data visualization
- Causal inference
- Machine Learning
- Generative AI
Agenda
2:00 – 2:05 – Introductory remarks
2:05 – 2:20 – 3-minute/3-slide lightning talks
2:20 – 3:00 – Moderated panel discussion
3:00 – 3:30 – Refreshments and casual discussion
Lightning talks are recommended for new attendees interested in introducing themselves to the group or previous attendees interested in sharing something new they are working on. The panel discussion will center on the theme of generative AI in data science and evolving career paths.
We kindly request attendees to RSVP by May 20th May 22nd (deadline extended!) using this form.
The DDDI Postdoctoral Fellows program is expanding! In response to the rapid evolution of the AI landscape and the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, we are launching a unified postdoctoral fellows program that spans the sciences and AI. The program aims to seamlessly integrate the strengths of the Center for Innovation in Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS) and the Data Driven Discovery Initiative (DDDI) into a single home for data science postdoctoral fellows in SEAS and SAS.
See the announcement for more details.
Cultures of Datafication in & across South Asia
Registration required
Event Organizer: Kim Fernandes; Zehra Hashmi; Sandeep Mertia; and Rahul Mukherjee (University of Pennsylvania) and Ranjit Singh (Data & Society)
Date: 4/12-13/24
Location: Day 1 – Fisher Bennet Hall #401; Day 2 – CASI, 133 S 36th St, #230
This event aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners to discuss historical and emergent trajectories of data-driven knowledge production in South Asia. In doing so, participants will examine how under-explored social relations in South Asia shape data-driven technologies and vice versa. The workshop will also explore the past, present, and/or future of datafication across South Asia as it relates to three broad themes: identity, governance, and energy.
