Data Skeptic

We are joined by Maciej Besta, a senior researcher of sparse graph computations and large language models at the Scalable Parallel Computing Lab (SPCL). In this episode, we explore the intersection of graph theory and high-performance computing (HPC), Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and LLMs.

In this episode, we sit down with Yuanyuan Tian, a principal scientist manager at Microsoft Gray Systems Lab, to discuss the evolving role of graph databases in various industries such as fraud detection in finance and insurance, security, healthcare, and supply chain optimization.

Our new season "Graphs and Networks" begins here! We are joined by new co-host Asaf Shapira, a network analysis consultant and the podcaster of NETfrix – the network science podcast. Kyle and Asaf discuss ideas to cover in the season and explore Asaf's work in the field.

Join us for our capstone episode on the Animal Intelligence season. We recap what we loved, what we learned, and things we wish we had gotten to spend more time on. This is a great episode to see how the podcast is produced. Now that the season is ending, our current co-host, Becky, is moving to emeritus status. In this last installment we got to spend a little more time getting to know Becky and where her work will take her after this. Did Data Skeptic inspire her to learn more about machine learning? Tune in and find out.

David Obembe, a recent University of Tartu graduate, discussed his Masters thesis on integrating LLMs with process mining tools. He explained how process mining uses event logs to create maps that identify inefficiencies in business processes. David shared his research on LLMs' potential to enhance process mining, including experiments evaluating their performance and future improvements using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).

Our guest today is Risa Shinoda, a PhD student at Kyoto University Agricultural Systems Engineering Lab, where she applies computer vision techniques.

She talked about the OpenAnimalTracks dataset and what it was used for. The dataset helps researchers predict animal footprint. She also discussed how she built a model for predicting tracks of animals. She shared the algorithms used and the accuracy they achieved. She also discussed further improvement opportunities for the model.

This episode features an interview with Mélisande Teng, a PhD candidate at Université de Montréal. Her research lies in the intersection of remote sensing and computer vision for biodiversity monitoring.

In this interview with author Deborah Gordon, Kyle asks questions about the mechanisms at work in an ant colony and what ants might teach us about how to build artificial intelligence. Ants are surprisingly adaptive creatures whose behavior emerges from their complex interactions. Aspects of network theory and the statistical nature of ant behavior are just some of the interesting details you'll get in this episode.

This season it's become clear that computing skills are vital for working in the natural sciences. In this episode, we were fortunate to speak with Madlen Wilmes, co-author of the book "Computing Skills for Biologists: A Toolbox". We discussed the book and why it's a great resource for students and teachers. In addition to the book, Madlen shared her experience and advice on transitioning from academia to an industry career and how data analytic skills transfer to jobs that your professionals might not always consider. Join us and learn more about the book and careers using transferable skills.

In this episode, we talked shop with Hager Radi about her biodiversity monitoring work. While biodiversity modeling may sound simple, count organisms and mark their location, there is a lot more to it than that! Incomplete and biased data can make estimations hard. There are also many species with very few observations in the wild. Using machine learning and remote sensing data, scientists can build models that predict species distributions with limited data. Listen in and hear about Hager's work tackling these challenges and the tools she has built.