TRIADS Training Series demystifies data science tools for WashU students, staff, and faculty |
Launching in January with a course that introduced students to the Python programming language, the TRIADS Training Series has roared to life in the spring semester, offering 15 courses and workshops of free education on utilizing data science tools. Topics have included machine learning, data analysis and visualization, and ChatGPT.
"Our goal is to 'fill in the gaps' of the formal curriculum, and make sure these skills are within reach for every researcher at WashU regardless of their school or department," said TRIADS director Jacob Montgomery.
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Introduction to Webscraping in Python
Friday, March 08, 12:30 p.m.
DUC, Room 239
In this concise one-session workshop, we will learn about web scraping using the Requests and BeautifulSoup library in Python. Often, the data essential for research is not neatly presented as a CSV or JSON file and we need to go out and search for it ourselves. Web scraping is one way of using an automated process to collect data from websites (like, Wikipedia). This workshop will introduce you to the basic components of html, which serves as the backbone for structuring content on web pages, and will guide you in constructing your very own web scraper.
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| Getting Started with HPC at WashU
Monday, March 18 - Wednesday, March 27
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30 - 4 p.m.
DUC 248
This four-course seminar will provide participants with a foundation in using the RIS computing cluster. RIS is a computing platform run by WashU, which provides services for both data storage and high-performance computing. The course will first guide participants in gaining access to RIS, setting up Docker, configuring the Python environment, and uploading data to RIS Storage. The training will then progress to cover the basics of running jobs on RIS while also highlighting strategies for maximizing GPU efficiency.
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Data Analysis and Visualization with Python
Monday, March 25 - Wednesday, April 10
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Olin Library
This six-session course will introduce participants to the primary packages and methods for data analysis and visualization in Python. Initial sessions will explore how to use the popular Pandas library for the management and preliminary analysis of data, with a particular focus on CSV and JSON format datasets.
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| Large Language Models in Python
Monday, March 25 – Wednesday, March 27
12:30 - 2 p.m.
Olin Library, Room 2
In this three-session seminar, we will delve into neural network/deep learning approaches that have become dominant in NLP in recent years. The course will cover concepts in the rapidly evolving state-of-the-art, with a focus on transfer learning using pre-trained language models and transformers such as BERT and GPT. Participants will leverage these models off the shelf to accomplish tasks like translation and zero-shot classification.
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Matt Jockers Lecture: "Linguistic Entailments, Bestselling DNA, and other Absurd Ideas”
Wednesday, March 20, 4 p.m.
Duncker Hall 101
In this talk, leading digital humanities researcher Matt Jockers describes how algorithms reveal the unique patterns of individual linguistic style and allow us to predict which authors and which books are mostly likely to hit the New York Times Bestseller list. He discusses foundational work in authorship attribution, stylometry—and even some neuroscience and behavioral genetics—in a talk that ultimately leads us to question the entire notion of creativity and authorial agency.
Hosted in collaboration with the Humanities Digital Workshop and the Center for the Humanities' Redefining Doctoral Education initiative.
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| Grad Student Happy Hour
Thursday, March 21, 4 - 6 p.m.
4th Floor Knight Center Pub
Join us for a happy hour for graduate students at the Knight Center!
TRIADS will host a happy hour, combined with a brainstorming session. Students can collaborate and pitch ideas for how TRIADS can better support interdisciplinary graduate students. This is your chance to share your insights, with the best idea winning a $100 award!
Come join us for networking, collaboration, and fun as we explore new ways to enhance the graduate student experience at WashU. Drinks and food will be served.
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TRIADS Mobile Assessment and Intervention Network (MAIN) Meeting
Friday, March 22, Noon - 1 p.m.
Somers Family Hall 216A
The TRIADS Mobile Assessment and Intervention Network (MAIN) Nexus Group will meet to discuss its latest work and next steps. The goal of this group is to facilitate connections between researchers interested in mobile data applications and methodologies, and to promote conversations around relevant funding opportunities.
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| TRIADS Speaker Series: Communication for Action: Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes of Social Influence
Thursday, March 28, Noon
DUC 276
This talk will begin with an analysis of the processes of communication that unfold when individuals receive messages from others. Speaker Dolores Albarracín (University of Pennsylvania) will describe experiments designed to establish whether merely alluding to behaviors can influence others to perform those behaviors. This will be followed by an account of the use of artificial intelligence to elevate behavioral messages to authorities within communities, concluding with field and experimental research on the social action mechanisms that inspire authorities to work toward solving problems in their communities.
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The Humanities in the AI Future Symposium
Presented by: WashU Center for the Humanities
Thursday, April 4 - Friday, April 5
DUC 234
This symposium will convene four diverse talks on the affordances of humanistic scholarship with and about artificial intelligence and machine learning. Drawing on work ranging from literature and women’s and gender studies to history of science and science and technology studies, speakers will model a series of humanistic approaches to understanding and using these culturally seismic technologies.
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Workshop on Translational Research on Data Heterogeneity
Presented by: WashU Department of Statistics and Data Science
Saturday, April 6 - Sunday, April 7
The workshop will serve as a platform for bringing some of the leading scholars in statistics and data science to exchange new research ideas and train the next-generation data scientists in the analysis of heterogeneous data. The workshop will convene interdisciplinary researchers to discuss the forefront of heterogeneous data analysis and identify emerging areas for future research, emphasizing both methodology and applications. The workshop will feature keynote speakers, invited talks, poster session and career panel for junior researchers.
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Computer Science & Engineering Talks |
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| Human Factors in Secure and Non-Abusive AI
Presenter: Jaron Mink
Monday, March 25, 11:30 a.m.
McKelvey Hall, 1020
In this talk, Mink will discuss how the behaviors of machine learning developers, users, and victims of machine learning misuse affect the security of systems.
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If you are interested in any of the grant opportunities below, please reach out to Dr. Bhavna Hirani, Senior Research Development Associate, for assistance.
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NSF: Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC)
Deadline: May 1, 2024
The Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) is a research and action competition that accelerates the transition to practice of foundational research and emerging technologies into communities through civic-engaged research. By addressing priorities at the local scale that are relevant across the US, CIVIC is laying the foundation for a broader and more fluid exchange of research and technology capabilities and civic priorities through joint partnerships involving civic partners and the research community.
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NSF: Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks
Full proposal deadline: May 15, 2024
The goal of this solicitation by NSF is to fund convergent research and education that will advance sustainable regional systems science, engineering, and education to facilitate the transformation of current regional systems to enhance sustainability.
The networks will conduct fundamental research and education that is of a scale and complexity that would not be possible within a single organization, center, or through the normal collaborative modes of NSF research support in core programs.
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Do you have feedback or want to submit an item for a future newsletter? Let us know at triads@wustl.edu.
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