Carry the Two

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.