News & Events

Open Call for Abstracts

DDDI is happy to help sponsor “Cultures of Datafication in/across South Asia,” a collaborative workshop taking place on April 12-13, 2024, at the University of Pennsylvania.

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.

Call for Abstracts

The organizers invite early-career researchers and practitioners to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words­ that outlines a provocation they wish to make about datafication in South Asia. Provocations should encourage critical thinking and stimulate discussion within the workshop and be related to one of the workshop’s three themes: identity, governance, and energy. The deadline to submit an abstract is January 31, 2024, using this Google form.

In addition to conversations based upon participants’ abstracts, keynote speakers for the workshop include Dr. Ursula Rao (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), Nayantara Ranganathan (Co-Founder of the Persuasion Lab), Dr. Sareeta Amrute (Parsons, The New School & Data & Society), Dr. Ishtiaque Ahmed (University of Toronto), and Dr. Rida Qadri (Google Research).

For more information and up-to-date deadlines, please see this document or email Kim (fernk@upenn.edu).

DDDI is thrilled to sponsor the 10th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) being held this summer, July 17-20, at the University of Pennsylvania. IC2S2 brings together social, computational, complexity, and network scientists working at the frontiers of computational social science to explore transformative solutions for societal challenges.

Call for Abstracts

The deadline to submit an abstract is February 24th. IC2S2 welcomes diverse contributions that push the boundaries of computational social science.

Call for Tutorials

The tutorial submission deadline is January 19th. From methodological insights to disciplinary overviews, IC2S2 invites comprehensive tutorials at the intersection of the social sciences, computer science, and statistics.

For more information and up-to-date deadlines, visit the IC2S2 Conference website.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, December 14

Time: 3:00 – 5:00 PM

Location: RDDS Exchange (First floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center)

Key topics that will be discussed:

• High-performance computing
• Data visualization
• Causal inference
• Artificial intelligence

Refreshments will be provided, and we encourage you to join us for engaging discussions.

DDDI Announces new Data Science Careers Program

Coming Spring 2024!

The Data Driven Discovery Initiative (DDDI) is excited to announce the launch of its new Data Science Careers program. This new program will help students explore the wide variety of data driven careers that exist across industry, government, and non-governmental organizations. The program will offer a new panel series bringing data science professionals to Penn this Spring, and will work with Penn alumni to identify new data driven internship opportunities for Penn students, starting with a few opportunities this summer. DDDI will hold its first industry jobs panel in late February of 2024 in partnership with Penn’s College Alumni Mentoring Service (CAMS).

More Details Coming Soon

All interested students are invited to take part in these opportunities. We encourage you to visit DDDI’s website at https://web.sas.upenn.edu/data-science for updates. While only a handful of internship opportunities are likely to be available this first year, we encourage you to register your interest with us and we will keep you in mind as we grow our network of opportunities in the future.

For inquiries and further information, please contact:

Dr. Colin Twomey
411 McNeil Building
3718 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6286
crtwomey@sas.upenn.edu

About the Data Driven Discovery Initiative: The Data Driven Discovery Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania is dedicated to advancing research and education in data science and analytics. Through innovative projects, partnerships, and programs, we are shaping the future of data-driven innovation at Penn and around the world.

Visit our website at https://web.sas.upenn.edu/data-science

The Data Driven Discovery Initiative is hosting a panel discussion on generative AI entitled “ChatGPT turns one: How is generative AI reshaping science?”

What kinds of discoveries will generative AI enable? Penn faculty will discuss fascinating new advances in the natural and social sciences enabled by generative AI. They will consider which areas of science will be completely transformed, which will be augmented in new directions, and which will carry on as they always have, untouched by generative AI. Which new questions will be tackled that previously were only topics of speculative discussion?

Tools like ChatGPT may also change the process of doing science, from writing to reviewing to communicating findings to the public. What might the new scientific process look like?

The level of discussion will be accessible to any student in SAS.

A live stream of the discussion and a recording of the event will be made available (please see below for more information).

Panelists:

• Sudeep Bhatia (Psychology)
• Konrad Kording (Neuroscience)
• Nick Pangakis (Political Science)
• Meredith Tamminga (Linguistics)
• Andrew Zahrt (Chemistry)

Also featuring:

• Introductory remarks: René Vidal (Penn Engineering)
• Moderator: Bhuvnesh Jain (Physics and Astronomy)

Date: Thursday, November 30th, 2023
Time: 2:30 – 4pm
Location: Blank Forum (Room 250, PCPSE Building 2nd floor)
Live stream: Available via zoom.
Recording:

The Data Driven Discovery Initiative will hold its very first seminar Friday, November 10th, at noon in the SAIL Room (111 Levin Building), in partnership with MindCORE, and will feature Andrew Hein. Andrew uses modern ML methods to understand collective behaviors in animal groups, integrating lab work, field data, and theory.

If you’re a graduate student or postdoc please also consider joining for Andrew’s lunch immediately following the seminar. Email Jessica Marcus to sign up. Andrew has very broad interests and is a great person to chat with, so please do not hesitate to join.

Friday 11/10 at 12pm – DDDI + MindCORE Seminar

Title: Behavioral algorithms: searching for principles of flexible, robust behavior in the natural world
Speaker: Andrew Hein (Cornell, Dept. of Computational Biology)
Organizers: MindCORE + DDDI
Date: Friday, November 10th, 2023
Time: 12pm – 1:30pm
Location: SAIL Room (111 Levin Building)

Abstract: A dominant paradigm in the analysis of behavior is to separate “the brain” of an individual from “the environment” to which that individual is responding. Yet, in nature, many behaviors involve interactions with other organisms that are, themselves, generating dynamic and responsive behavior. The existence of such feedbacks between interacting brains significantly complicates analysis and interpretation of natural behavior, but these feedbacks are also undoubtedly important in driving the evolution of behavior and the neural computations that support it. My lab studies how organisms make decisions during ecological interactions — interactions with predators, prey, group-mates, and competitors. In this context, feedbacks abound, and the challenge for the brain is generating behaviors that are responsive while at the same time being robust and controllable. I will discuss our investigations in this area and some of the principles they are beginning to reveal.

A pizza lunch will be served. Please bring your own beverage.

This Fall, DDDI is working together with the Research Data & Digital Scholarship librarians to develop two new programs at Penn. One fostering student-led data driven projects within the Penn community, and the second an AI Interest Group discussing applications and issues surrounding new advances in generative AI. Please join us for the first meeting in each series on September 26th and November 7th, respectively.

September 26th at 2pm

Speed Networking for Data Driven Research & Digital Scholarship

Meet like-minded student researchers and build a community around data and digital projects of all kinds. This is a unique opportunity to build and expand your network for professional growth and development, learn about research projects that include data and/or digital elements from the source. Refreshments will be provided. Mingle with friends and meet new ones. Led by RDDS librarian Jaj Karajgikar, for more information about this event and how to register, visit the RDDS page for the event, here. Please note that registration is required.

November 7th at 10am

AI Ethics and Sentiment Analysis

Recent developments in AI have made automated tools for sentiment analysis — the detection of positive and negative sentiment in writing and speech — capable of detecting toxic language in social media. But what are the limitations of these methods, and who gets to decide what language is toxic? Join us for a discussion on these issues led by RDDS librarian Stephen Hall. More information about the event and how to register can be found on the RDDS page for the event, here.

Photo credit: Penn Libraries’ new Research Data & Digital Scholarship Exchange (RDDSx) space.

DDDI is excited to announce the new Data Science and Analytics minor! The DASA minor offers Penn students a new path to a foundational education in data science that can be tailored to their existing field of study in the natural and social sciences. Find out more here:

Data Science and Analytics Minor

Please join us for the Data Driven Discovery Initiative’s 2023 Summer Hangouts program! Undergrads, grad students, and postdocs are all invited to participate in informal, hands-on tutorials led by our team of DDDI postdoctoral research fellows. These tutorials are open to students from all backgrounds and skill levels, covering a wide range of data science topics. Hangouts are held once a week on Thursdays from July 20th through August 17th in the newly renovated RDDSX space in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, with a pizza lunch between tutorial sessions. Details and the full schedule are available here:

Summer Hangouts 2023

Thank you to all our DDDI postdoctoral fellows for the many insightful conversations at our postdoc lunches this past year. If you happen to be on or near campus on June 30th, please come join us at the Kaskey Park BioPond for a reunion to celebrate our past academic year together. Have a great summer, and looking forward to seeing you again in the Fall!

Photo credit: the Kaskey Park gallery.