Sydney Ideas

Data is the currency of the digital age and has transformed all areas of physical life and social sciences. In all disciplines there has been an unparalleled growth in the quantity and variety of data made available by the pervasive nature of the internet and enabled by almost free digital storage.

Moving beyond the expectations of ‘big data’ the focus is now on development of sophisticated and nuanced transformational data-driven ideas and algorithms.

Have we reached a tipping point where new approaches to complex systems, personal health, social policy and understanding our earth can now be understood with sophisticated and nuanced data-driven discovery?

What are the next fruitful steps for bringing together disparate data for applications that benefit individuals, business and our society?

The University of Sydney’s new Centre for Translational Data Science is driving new and transformational advances in research through the application of data and machine-learning technologies. The Centre is also supporting and building substantial new human capacity through teaching data science as a translational methodology and training a new generation of scientists.

In this interactive forum they discuss what we now know and what the future of data science holds.

A Sydney Ideas event on 7 June 2016 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/data_transforming_science_and_society.shtml

Data is the currency of the digital age and has transformed all areas of physical life and social sciences. In all disciplines there has been an unparalleled growth in the quantity and variety of data made available by the pervasive nature of the internet and enabled by almost free digital storage.

Moving beyond the expectations of ‘big data’ the focus is now on development of sophisticated and nuanced transformational data-driven ideas and algorithms.

Have we reached a tipping point where new approaches to complex systems, personal health, social policy and understanding our earth can now be understood with sophisticated and nuanced data-driven discovery?

What are the next fruitful steps for bringing together disparate data for applications that benefit individuals, business and our society?

The University of Sydney’s new Centre for Translational Data Science is driving new and transformational advances in research through the application of data and machine-learning technologies. The Centre is also supporting and building substantial new human capacity through teaching data science as a translational methodology and training a new generation of scientists.

In this interactive forum they discuss what we now know and what the future of data science holds.

A Sydney Ideas event on 7 June 2016 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/data_transforming_science_and_society.shtml

Data is the currency of the digital age and has transformed all areas of physical life and social sciences. In all disciplines there has been an unparalleled growth in the quantity and variety of data made available by the pervasive nature of the internet and enabled by almost free digital storage.

Moving beyond the expectations of ‘big data’ the focus is now on development of sophisticated and nuanced transformational data-driven ideas and algorithms.

Have we reached a tipping point where new approaches to complex systems, personal health, social policy and understanding our earth can now be understood with sophisticated and nuanced data-driven discovery?

What are the next fruitful steps for bringing together disparate data for applications that benefit individuals, business and our society?

The University of Sydney’s new Centre for Translational Data Science is driving new and transformational advances in research through the application of data and machine-learning technologies. The Centre is also supporting and building substantial new human capacity through teaching data science as a translational methodology and training a new generation of scientists.

In this interactive forum they discuss what we now know and what the future of data science holds.

A Sydney Ideas event on 7 June 2016 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/data_transforming_science_and_society.shtml

This talk was a key note address for the 2016 Photography.Ontology symposium that took place at the University of Sydney in June 2016.

Professor Smith considers Frederick Douglass’s propositions about the social power of photography. Looking back at Douglass’s lecture “Pictures and Progress” through the lens of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson’s homage to the nineteenth-century orator, the talk examines Douglass’s surprising celebration of photography as an objectifying medium. Douglass saw the persistence of photographs as both a conserving and a conservative force, and Johnson’s self-portrait after Douglass testifies to that doubled dynamic. But Douglass also found progressive power in the technology’s capacity to alienate the self, an unexpected position for the formerly enslaved. The talk explores Douglass’s complicated embrace of photography as a medium of objectification as well as progress, as a link to the past as well as the future.

This talk was a key note address for the 2016 Photography.Ontology symposium that took place at the University of Sydney in June 2016.

Professor Smith considers Frederick Douglass’s propositions about the social power of photography. Looking back at Douglass’s lecture “Pictures and Progress” through the lens of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson’s homage to the nineteenth-century orator, the talk examines Douglass’s surprising celebration of photography as an objectifying medium. Douglass saw the persistence of photographs as both a conserving and a conservative force, and Johnson’s self-portrait after Douglass testifies to that doubled dynamic. But Douglass also found progressive power in the technology’s capacity to alienate the self, an unexpected position for the formerly enslaved. The talk explores Douglass’s complicated embrace of photography as a medium of objectification as well as progress, as a link to the past as well as the future.

This talk was a key note address for the 2016 Photography.Ontology symposium that took place at the University of Sydney in June 2016.

Professor Smith considers Frederick Douglass’s propositions about the social power of photography. Looking back at Douglass’s lecture “Pictures and Progress” through the lens of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson’s homage to the nineteenth-century orator, the talk examines Douglass’s surprising celebration of photography as an objectifying medium. Douglass saw the persistence of photographs as both a conserving and a conservative force, and Johnson’s self-portrait after Douglass testifies to that doubled dynamic. But Douglass also found progressive power in the technology’s capacity to alienate the self, an unexpected position for the formerly enslaved. The talk explores Douglass’s complicated embrace of photography as a medium of objectification as well as progress, as a link to the past as well as the future.

Constructed, neglected, rebuilt and expanded over the course of nearly a century, the Qing imperial park of Bishu shanzhuang played a central, but constantly changing, role in the history of the Manchu dynasty for nearly two centuries. Scholars of the site have focused on its final form at the end of the 18th century, taking a single vision of its design and use as descriptive of its entire history.

In this talk, Stephen Whiteman explores the park’s early history under the Kangxi emperor, from its original conception as an imperial retreat to its representation through text and image, and considers the legacy of this history not only in later iterations of the landscape, but also in collective memories of the rise and fall of the dynasty itself.

Scientists have long thought that the adult brain is unchangeable, but new evidence is emerging to challenge this belief by revealing that the brain is capable of lifelong change and adaptation.

This adaptability - or neuroplasticity as it is commonly known - shows the mature brain can reorganise or ‘rewire’ itself in response to experience, disease or injury.

University of Sydney researchers are at the forefront of brain and mind research. In this fascinating forum our experts will share what neuroplasticity means for degenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, regaining speech after disease or injury, and the implications for all of us in terms of maintaining a healthy brain. Presenters:

Associate Professor Michael Valenzuela, Head of the Regenerative Neuroscience Group, Brain and Mind Centre

Professor Leanne Togher, Professor of Communication Disorders following Traumatic Brain Injury, Faculty of Health Sciences

Dr Michael Lee, Clinical Neurophysiologist and Physiotherapist, Brain and Mind Centre and Faculty of Health Sciences

Professor Simon Lewis, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Director of the Ageing Brain Clinic, Brain and Mind Centre

Scientists have long thought that the adult brain is unchangeable, but new evidence is emerging to challenge this belief by revealing that the brain is capable of lifelong change and adaptation.

This adaptability - or neuroplasticity as it is commonly known - shows the mature brain can reorganise or ‘rewire’ itself in response to experience, disease or injury.

University of Sydney researchers are at the forefront of brain and mind research. In this fascinating forum our experts will share what neuroplasticity means for degenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, regaining speech after disease or injury, and the implications for all of us in terms of maintaining a healthy brain. Presenters:

Associate Professor Michael Valenzuela, Head of the Regenerative Neuroscience Group, Brain and Mind Centre

Professor Leanne Togher, Professor of Communication Disorders following Traumatic Brain Injury, Faculty of Health Sciences

Dr Michael Lee, Clinical Neurophysiologist and Physiotherapist, Brain and Mind Centre and Faculty of Health Sciences

Professor Simon Lewis, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Director of the Ageing Brain Clinic, Brain and Mind Centre

Constructed, neglected, rebuilt and expanded over the course of nearly a century, the Qing imperial park of Bishu shanzhuang played a central, but constantly changing, role in the history of the Manchu dynasty for nearly two centuries. Scholars of the site have focused on its final form at the end of the 18th century, taking a single vision of its design and use as descriptive of its entire history.

In this talk, Stephen Whiteman explores the park’s early history under the Kangxi emperor, from its original conception as an imperial retreat to its representation through text and image, and considers the legacy of this history not only in later iterations of the landscape, but also in collective memories of the rise and fall of the dynasty itself.