Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks with Northwestern Fellows and Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
NICO is hosting a lightning talk seminar each term as a part of our Wednesdays@NICO seminar series. Northwestern graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited to participate. To sign up for future lightning talks, please visit: https://bit.ly/2lRqSXK
Lightning Talk Speakers:
○ Sugat Dabholkar - PhD Candidate in the Learning Sciences program at the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University.
Title: Emergent Systems Microworlds to teach and learn about complex emergent phenomena
Abstract: Learning and reasoning about complex systems is not simple. Both novices and experts often fall into the trap of level-slippage while reasoning about complex natural phenomena. Level-slippage is the confusion that arises when one expects emergent macro-level patterns to be similar to local micro-level patterns. Such confusion is people’s source of a deep misunderstanding of several patterns and phenomena in the world.
In my work, I seek to address this issue for high school science students by combining two powerful design approaches in Learning Sciences, namely, agent-based modeling of emergent systems and constructionism. We call this design approach Emergent Systems Microworlds (ESM). This approach is based on Wilensky and Papert’s restructuration theory (2010), which argues for the importance of representational infrastructure for changing fundamental aspects of knowledge encodings in a disciplinary domain. In this talk, I will discuss how agent-based restructurations in an ESM allow learners to develop fundamentally deeper insights into complex phenomena.
In an ESM-based curriculum, students explore and learn about emergent phenomena, using agent-based computational models that are designed in NetLogo (Wilensky, 1999) in the form of a microworld. In such models, an agent is a computational object with particular properties and actions. An ‘emergent’ phenomenon is modeled in terms of agents and their interactions. Microworlds are encapsulated open-ended computational exploratory environments in which a set of concepts can be explored, through interactions that lead to knowledge construction. In this talk, I will present some examples of ESM-based curricula that I designed for high school students to learn about genetics and evolution, two fundamental ideas in biology. I will discuss how the agent-based representational architecture in the ESMs allowed the students to engage in reasoning about complex systems principles in the context of the phenomena they were studying.
Bio: Sugat Dabholkar is a doctoral candidate in the Learning Sciences program at the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. His work involves designing technology-enhanced learning environments for learning scientific thinking, computational thinking, and complex systems thinking. Over the past four years, Sugat has developed several computational agent-based models, many of which have been incorporated into curricular units for high school students. He has conducted Professional Development programs for teachers focusing on designing Computational Thinking integrated STEM curricular units. These curricular units have been used in school settings in the US as well as in India.
○ Xuan Ma - Postdoctoral Fellow at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Title: Probing motor control during naturalistic movements for extending BCI use
Abstract: Most existing sensorimotor and brain computer interface (BCI) studies have investigated the mapping from motor cortex (M1) to muscles by training monkeys to perform a few instructed movements in highly restricted conditions. Motivated by the demand of extending those in-lab studies to a wider realm, we propose to explore motor control during more natural movements of unrestrained monkeys. We simultaneously recorded M1 neural activity and electromyograph (EMG) wirelessly while the monkey was in a plastic telemetry cage in which it could perform various free-form movements. We then investigated the features of these signals and the consistency of the relationship between them. In this talk, I will describe progress we have made and challenges we are facing to extend BCI use in more naturalistic contexts, and will also introduce our efforts with deep learning methods to address those challenges.
Bio: Xuan Ma is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. He received the Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2017. His research interests include cortically-controlled functional electric stimulation, neural motor control system modeling, and biomedical signal processing.
○ Suman Kalyan Maity - Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management, CSSI and NICO
Title: Winners, Losers, and Future Achievement
Abstract: One of the most robust findings on human performance is that past achievement predicts future achievements. Indeed, prior achievements may reflect underlying, differentiating characteristics rendering past winners more predictably outperforming their non-winning counterparts in future competitions. Further, the Matthew effect posits that past victories bring reputation and recognition that can translate into tangible assets, which increase the chance for future victories. Hence even if the deck was not stacked against some in favor of others, positive feedback operating on arbitrary initial advantage can increasingly set apart winners from losers. These mechanisms lead to one fundamental principle with crucial implications: Between past winners and losers, it is the former that are more likely to win in the future. Indeed, partly due to the robustness of this principle, the idea of selecting on winners has become one of the most commonly used heuristics in identifying and nurturing talents across a remarkably wide range of domains. In this talk, we systematically test against the principle of selecting between winners and losers across various settings. We observe that whenever there existed a reward based milestone (being on the podium, entering the main draw of a Tennis tournament etc.), the athletes who had just missed it ended up outperforming the athletes who narrowly achieved the milestone in future endeavors.
Bio: Suman Kalyan Maity is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management, The Center for Science of Science & Innovation (CSSI), and NICO.
○ Rebeka O. Szabo - Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Title: The Micro-Dynamic Nature of Team Interaction
Abstract: Teams have become a popular organization form since well-functioning task-focused groups are basic pillars of successful organizations. While there is much interest in contemporary social science in understanding team processes that lead to efficiency, most of these researches rely heavily on self-reported data yielding static and potentially biased information and tends to overlook actual interaction processes. We propose a novel approach that allows portraying a nuanced, complex picture of problem-solving group behavior by measuring performance dynamics as it evolves in real-time, in a controlled environment. The research aims to explore how collaboration networks of small project teams evolve across time and team members, and how it relates to successful task performance. We investigate interaction patterns in escape rooms, where all teams are video recorded during the task-solving process in the same experimental environment. We expected that homogeneous distribution of interaction ties across time and team members fosters successful problem-solving. Concerning the impact of the initial social roles on the dynamics of the interaction pattern, we hypothesized that flexible, less hierarchical team structures favor for problem-solving. This research aims to advance the new science of teams' by focusing on the network micro-mechanisms that allows us to treat teams as dynamic, adaptive, task-performing systems.
Bio: Rebeka O. Szabo is a visiting Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management. She is a PhD candidate at the Central European University's Department of Network and Data Science.
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between.
Live Stream:
Time
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Elizabeth Gerber, Northwestern University "Human–AI Systems That Amplify Human Connection at Work"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Elizabeth Gerber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Title:
Richer Together: Human–AI Systems That Amplify Human Connection at Work
Abstract:
AI in the workplace is often framed as a story of replacement. This talk flips that narrative. Drawing on research-informed, human-centered design, I present hybrid human–AI systems that scaffold—not supplant—our most distinctively human capacities: connection, reflection, and meaning-making. These systems are built on empirical insights into how people collaborate and learn, and it demonstrate how AI can be designed to increase metacognition and better prepare for more intentional, higher-quality human interactions. Rather than stripping work of its human core, AI—when designed in context and with care —can help make our work more relational, more effective, and more deeply human.
Speaker Bio:
Liz Gerber is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Communication at Northwestern University and creates sociotechnical platforms that make innovation accessible to everyone. Her research explores how new technologies can support the innovation process, particularly “collective innovation,” which taps into often unused human, social, and economic resources to discover, assess, and implement ideas. Through the Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design, Delta Lab, and Design for America, her team develops collaborative networks that address complex issues—from healthcare access to climate resilience—promoting entrepreneurship and strengthening the link between engineering and society. She earned her PhD in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94056849008
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - October 2025 - Speaker: Buduka Ogonor, Physics and Astronomy
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
OCTOBER MEETING: Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Buduka Ogonor, Motter Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Network Dynamics
TALK TITLE:
Finding gene sets underlying complex phenotypes via generative modeling
ABSTRACT:
Most human traits are complex, that is, they emerge from the interactions among multiple genes. The sheer number of possible gene set-to-phenotype mappings makes it challenging to identify the gene sets underlying complex traits using statistical approaches like genome and transcriptome-wide association studies. Furthermore, these existing approaches assume that molecular-level changes are independent, which is at odds with the existence of intracellular networks that govern cell behavior.
Here, we present an approach that identifies gene set-to-phenotype relationships that leverages generative modeling trained on publicly available transcriptional data. We use a generative model—dubbed TWAVE for Transcription-Wide Variational Auto-Encoder—to emulate diseased and healthy transcriptional states. Then, we use existing transcriptional measurements of responses to turning genes on and off as inputs to an optimization framework, which identifies the gene perturbations that minimize the transcriptional difference between the diseased and healthy states. Using nine disease traits as examples, we show that the approach identifies causal genes that cannot be detected by the primary existing techniques. We suggest that the approach be used to design tailored experiments to identify multi-genic targets to address complex diseases.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Julio M. Ottino, Northwestern University "From Clocks to Clouds: The Complexity Revolution"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Julio M. Ottino, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
Title:
From Clocks to Clouds: The Complexity Revolution: How Scientific Breakthroughs Reshaped Reality and Our Place Within It
Abstract:
For three centuries, Western thought was guided by a Newtonian worldview: the universe as a vast clock, predictable and controllable. That vision has unraveled. Scientific revolutions—from relativity and quantum mechanics to evolution, game theory, and complexity science—have revealed a world of uncertainty, emergence, and creative interconnection. We now inhabit a “cloud world,” where relationships matter more than parts, and uncertainty is not ignorance but potential. This talk traces the transformation from clocks to complexity, showing how these revolutions reshape our understanding of reality and what it means to navigate knowledge, organizations, and society in turbulent times.
Speaker Bio:
Julio M. Ottino is an engineering scientist recognized for his work in fluid dynamics, chaos and nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, and especially mixing. He was born in La Plata, Argentina and grew up with twin interests in the physical sciences and visual arts. He obtained his first degree at the University of La Plata, in Argentina, before receiving a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is currently at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in Northwestern University where he holds the titles of Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He is also a professor of Management and Organizations at Kellogg School of Management. He was the co-founder and director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) and the author of the Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and Transport (Cambridge University Press 1989) and The Nexus, Augmented Thinking for a Complex World, with Bruce Mau (MIT Press, 2022).
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99053647199
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Google "Symbiogenesis, Computational Parallelism, and Complexity in Evolution"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, VP/Fellow, CTO of Technology & Society, Google
Title:
Symbiogenesis, Computational Parallelism, and Complexity in Evolution
Abstract:
Symbiogenesis-- the fusion of formerly independent self-replicating entities into a larger self-replicating entity-- is proposed as the driving force behind evolution's "arrow of time" toward ever-increasing complexity. We'll explore an Artificial Life system as a minimal motivating example, then discuss the implications for biological evolution beyond the "standard" accounts of Major Evolutionary Transitions and "intelligence explosions" in brainy species. Energetic and computational implications will also be addressed.
Speaker Bio:
Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a VP and Fellow at Google, where he is the CTO of Technology & Society and founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi). Pi is an organization working on fundamental research in AI and related fields, especially the foundations of neural computing, active inference, sociality, evolution, and Artificial Life.
In 2008, Blaise was awarded MIT’s TR35 prize. During his tenure at Google, Blaise has innovated on-device machine learning for Android and Pixel; invented Federated Learning, an approach to decentralized model training that avoids sharing private data; and founded the Artists + Machine Intelligence program.
An External Professor at Santa Fe Institute and a frequent public speaker, Blaise has given multiple TED talks and keynoted NeurIPS. He has also authored numerous papers, essays, op-eds, and chapters, as well as two previous books, Who Are We Now? and Ubi Sunt. His most recent book, What Is Life?, is part 1 of the larger book What Is Intelligence?, forthcoming from Antikythera and MIT Press in September 2025.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98741396308
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - November 2025 - Speaker: Feihong Xu, ESAM
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
NOVEMBER MEETING: Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Feihong Xu, Amaral Lab, ESAM
Talk title and abstract TBA.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - December 2025 - Speaker: Yash Chainani, Chemical Engineering
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
DECEMBER MEETING: Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Yash Chainani, Broadbelt & Tyo Labs, Chemical Engineering
Talk title and abstract TBA.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)