Data Science Updates is the University of Wisconsin-Madison's resource for news, training, events, and professional opportunities in data science, brought to you by the Data Science Institute, powered by American Family Insurance, and the Data Science Hub.
August 23, 2023
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Emily Bender Will Speak on the Risks and Use of Large Language Models
September 14, 3 p.m., Ever since OpenAI released ChatGPT, the internet has been awash in synthetic text, with suggested applications including robo-lawyers, robo-therapists, and robo-journalists. University of Washington Professor Emily Bender posits that these applications present unacceptable risks because ChatGPT and all other language models are nothing more than ungrounded text synthesis machines. In a public lecture at the Discovery Building's DeLuca Forum, Dr. Bender will provide an overview of how language models work, discuss risks associated with them, and explore what must hold for an appropriate use case for text synthesis. The lecture will be followed by a reception from 4-5pm.
This event is sponsored by the Language Institute, Data Science Institute, Language Sciences, and Center for the Humanities, with funding from the Anonymous Fund and Data Science Institute. For more information, visit the event website.
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Coding Meetup Kick-off
September 5, 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Coding Meetup is coming back to in-person! Come join us for a special in-person Coding Meetup on Sept 5th in Hub Central of the Discovery Building, with snacks generously provided by the Center for Genomic Science Innovation. Starting Sept 5th, 2023, you can come with your coding questions in-person in 1153/54 Discovery or by joining the #coding-meetup channel in the Data Science Hub Slack workspace. Researchers are welcome to join any Coding Meetup to ask questions about new computational tools, how to apply coding tools in research, how to troubleshoot coding bugs, or anything else related to data or code.
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ML+X Fall Kick-off
September 5, 5:30 p.m. - 6 p.m., UW-Madison’s ML+X community brings together students, researchers, and industry professionals who share an interest in using machine learning (ML) methods to advance their work (X). Learn more about the community’s upcoming events (forums, hackathons, socials, and more) and how you can get involved at the fall kickoff meeting! Light refreshments will be served.
Member survey: In preparation for the kickoff meeting, ML+X asks that all members (and those interested in joining) please take 5-10 minutes to fill out the biannual member survey so that they can better understand the backgrounds and needs of ML practitioners on campus, and better plan their future events. ML+X will present the survey results at the kickoff meeting.
Google Group: Click here to join the community’s Google group and be notified of upcoming events. If you have any trouble joining, please send an email to facilitator@datascience.wisc.edu, and they will add you to the group manually.
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Carpentries Information Session
September 6, 5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., UW-Madison's Carpentries Community hosts a variety of workshops year-round to help students, staff, and faculty learn essential computational skills including programming, data visualization, version control, machine learning, database management, and more. The Carpentries is seeking new members to bring additional diversity and expertise into its instructional community. Among other benefits, members have opportunities to advance their technical and teaching skills by attending computational workshops and participating in an optional instructor training program. Join the Google group and RSVP for the Sept 6 info session if you are interested in learning more!
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AutoML Cup Accepting New Submissions
Due September 10, Are you interested in making machine learning more adaptable to the real world? The 2023 AutoML Cup is still accepting new submissions! The competition’s third phase will run through September 10th. Given the current submissions, new participants will have quite promising odds of winning exciting hardware prizes! For more details, contact Sonia Cromp: cromp@wisc.edu.
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SSCC Workshops
The Social Science Computing Cooperative (SSCC) is hosting a variety of workshops at the end of August. Topics, dates & times, locations, and event links are below. Introductory workshops are designed to be taken before and in conjunction with the Data Wrangling workshops. Learn more about the SSCC at their website.
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Posit Cloud Essentials Event: Centralizing R & Python Data Projects
August 29, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Posit is hosting their second Posit Cloud Essentials event next week which is focusing on managing data projects with spaces in Posit Cloud. This event will be helpful for anyone working with R and Python data projects looking for a centralized, efficient space to manage them. The event will be held on YouTube with a live Q&A at the end. No registration is required to attend - simply add it to your calendar using this link.
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Workshop Series: Python and R Programming Languages for Data Analysis
September and October, Learn programming skills for computational research during the R workshop series and the Python workshop series. Attend any or all of the sessions. Brought to you as a part of the UW Libraries Graduate Support workshop series. Open to all UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff. Location: Instruction online via Zoom with in-person help at satellite locations for some workshops.
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Have questions about anything data science-related? Come see the Data Science Hub facilitators at Coding Meetup on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-4:30 p.m. CT. To join Coding Meetup, join data-science-hubgroup.slack.com.
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Exploring Artificial Intelligence @ UW–Madison
August 25, 9:15 a.m. - 10 a.m., John Zumbrunnen, UW–Madison vice provost for teaching and learning, will lead a panel in a conversation about the challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence presents for teaching and learning at the college level. There will be ample time for questions and answers. The Zoom link for this webinar series is available at the event page.
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ML4MI Seminar: Medical Vision With Imperfect Data
August 29, 10:00 a.m., The Machine Learning for Medical Imaging (ML4MI) is hosting a virtual seminar event, Medical Vision With Imperfect Data, with Dr. Prateek Prasanna, Director of the Imaging Informatics for Precision Medicine (IMAGINE) Lab at Stony Brook University. In the presentation, Dr. Prasana will discuss their research efforts in developing computational imaging biomarkers and frameworks for precision medicine in scenarios involving imperfect data. This talk covers a spectrum of computational techniques that facilitate the early detection and evaluation of treatment responses across various diseases. Attend the event at this WebEx meeting link.
August 29, 12:00 p.m., Additionally if you would like to follow-up and meet Dr. Prasanna, ML4MI is hosting a lunch discussion for students and trainees (residents, postdocs). Those interested in attending the lunch can sign-up at this spreadsheet.
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US-RSE'23
October 16-18, Registration for the First Annual Conference of the US Research Software Engineer Association is open (Early Bird Registration closes September 8!). This conference will be taking place at University of Illinois in Chicago campus and the theme of this year’s conference will be "Software Enabled Discovery and Beyond." Programming includes talks, tutorials, and workshops. Learn more and register at the event website.
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Summer SILO Series
Thursdays, Join the Systems Information Learning Optimization (SILO) group every Thursday at the Memorial Union at 3:00 p.m. for guest speakers. Previous topics include Partial Optimality in Cubic Correlation Clustering and Challenges and Progress towards Socially Responsible NLP. Both virtual and in-person options available. For more information visit the SILO website and mailing list.
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Forward Fest
August 21-25, The Forward Festival is Wisconsin's largest technology and entrepreneurship festival, attracting more than 5,000 attendees and serving as host for more than 40 events over 5 days every August. Now in its 14th year, it's the state's flagship celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship for business folks, nerds, social impact innovators, foodies, hackers, entrepreneurs, creatives, problem-solvers, community supporters and more from across the Midwest. Learn more about the festival and its events at the festival website.
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DevFest WI
August 24, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., DevFest WI is an inclusivity-themed conference for any and all folks in tech. Now in their fifth year, they are returning again to the beautiful UW Memorial Union for a day filled with a wide variety of talks on topics related to building inclusive and accessible products, teams, and environments. Learn more at the event page.
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Wisconsin Science Festival
October 16-22, The Wisconsin Science Festival is a statewide celebration with activities for people throughout Wisconsin. Events include hands-on science exhibitions, demonstrations, performances, tours, pub nights, workshops and more. Learn more about the festival and its events at the festival website.
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The Carpentries is seeking new members to bring additional diversity and expertise into its instructional community. Among other benefits, members have opportunities to advance their technical and teaching skills by attending computational workshops and participating in an optional instructor training program. Join the google group if interested in learning more!
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Job Fair for Women and Nonbinary Folks in Tech
August 24, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Madison Women in Tech is hosting their second annual job fair as part of DevFest WI and Forward Fest at Memorial Union. This is a great opportunity for women and nonbinary folks to explore opportunities with a wide variety of both Madison-based an national employers, from startups to corporations. Fifteen different companies will be represented at this event, so bring your resumes and questions, and explore a wide variety of opportunities right here in Madison. Learn more at the event page.
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PROFESSIONAL
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Manager - Cyber Fraud
Summit Credit Union is looking for a Cyber Fraud Manager. In collaboration with IT leadership, develop technical and operational aspects of Summit Credit Union’s strategy around fraud. Lead organization change initiatives improving fraud detection/prevention and associated operations. Learn more about the position at the job posting.
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DATA VISUALIZATION OF THE WEEK
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A visualization of the increasing prevalence of large language models by David McCandless with code by Tom Evans, Paul Barton, and Josh Richards. From Information is Beautiful.
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The Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA) is a network of academic data science practitioners, educators, and leaders, and academic-adjacent colleagues, who thoughtfully integrate data science best practices in higher education. UW-Madison is a founding member of ADSA.
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Data Science Updates is a collaborative effort of the Data Science Institute and Data Science Hub.
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