Just Science

In episode nine of the IPTES season, Just Science is covering the Statistical Approaches to Forensic Interpretation panel, recorded live at IPTES. Moderators for the panel was your host Dr. John Morgan, from RTI International and Dr. Jose Almirall, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida International University.

Panelist gave presentations during the symposium on various statistical topics, these presentations were: "Reality Check - What Is Expected from Expert Witnesses", by Dr. Steven Lund. "Challenges Faced by Experts When Communicating Forensic Evidence to Triers of Fact: A Statistician's View" by Dr. Hari Iyer. "The Use of Similarity Measures (Scores) to Quantify the Weight of Forensic Evidence" by Dr. Cedric Neumann, from South Dakota State University. "Statistical Analysis in Forensic Science Evidential Value of Multivariate Data" by Dr. Daniel Ramos, from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. "The Anatomy of Forensic Identification Decisions: Rethinking Current Reporting Practice in a Decision-Theoretic Perspective" by Dr. Alex Biedermann. If you would like to watch their presentations you can find them on the FTCoE website www.Forensiccoe.org

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode eight of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Cami Fuglsby, a PhD student from South Dakota State University to discuss Sufficiency and Complexity Factors in Handwriting Examination. Did you know that increasing the size of the document improves the sufficiency of the document? Or that the likelihood of chance matches decrease as complexity increases? Follow along as we discuss Flash ID, shape-codes, and flipping algorithms on their heads.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode six of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Robert Thompson, a Senior Forensic Science Research Manager at the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Mr. Thompson discusses his research on consecutively manufactured barrels and Objective Comparison of Toolmarks Produced from Consecutively Manufactured Cold Chisels. The profile's similarity and differences were compared using two mathematical methods, cross-correlation function, and the recently developed congruent matching profile segments method.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode six of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Chris Hamburg, from the Oregon State Police Forensic Services Division, and Jeff Jagmin from the WSP Crime Laboratory Division in Seattle. Our guests discuss the process a footwear examiner goes through in order to capture test impressions. Their interactive workshop “Intra- and Inter-variability of Footwear Test Impressions” had attendees go through this footwear examiner process. The attendees could then see for themselves what variations occur on the test impressions depending on the examiner’s physical variations, such as height and weight.

This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].

In episode five of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews John Vanderkolk from the Indiana State Laboratory. In a previous episode, Mr. Vanderkolk used the term Nature's patterns, now he will discuss the philosophy behind the term and how he uses his Fracture Examination workshop to teach these ideas.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode four of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Andrew Kimble, a student from Albany State University. Mr. Kimble explains his research in how incorporating statistical models in forensic shoeprint analysis can assist in identification. This episode shows how a young forensic professional is finding his own path, along with aiding others in his community.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode three of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Dr. Alicia Wilcox from Husson University and Heidi Eldridge from RTI International. Our guests discuss how visual aid and other tactics have been proven to help jurors interpret subject matter expert testimony. Listen and find out what Jurors say is effective in communicating forensic evidence in court.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In episode two of the IPTES season, Just Science interviews Dr. Ashraf Bastawros from the Iowa State University. Dr. Bastawros discusses how fracture mechanics principles can be used with statistical learning tools to give quantitative results. Explore the mind of an engineer and how leveraging other disciplines can aid forensic science.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

In this season we will cover content given at the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence's Impression Pattern and Trace Evidence Symposium.  The symposium was held January 22nd -25th 2018 in Arlington, Virginia, it had over 200 onsite attendees and over 300 online attendees. To kick off the season Just Science interviews John Vanderkolk from the Indiana State Laboratory. Vanderkolk discusses his belief in the importance of challenging your teachers and how nature's patterns are apparent throughout friction ridge evidence.

This season is funded by the National Institute of Justice's Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.

The host of Just Science, Dr. John Morgan, gives a detailed explanation about the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence’s Leadership Series. He discusses the topics along with the instructors who cover the material as well as some of the challenges associated with leadership in the crime lab.

Learn more at: https://forensiccoe.org/leadership-series/

This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].