FEBRUARY MEETING: Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 6:30pm in Chambers Hall, Evanston

DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly hack nights on popular data science topics, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Aspiring, beginning, and advanced data scientists are welcome!

SPEAKER: Yian Yin, PhD candidate in Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University.

TOPIC: Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security

Human achievements are often preceded by repeated attempts that fail, but little is known about the mechanisms that govern the dynamics of failure. Here we develop a simple model that mimics how successful future attempts build on past efforts. The model makes several predictions, demonstrating that those who eventually succeed and those who do not may initially appear similar, but can be characterized by fundamentally distinct failure dynamics. We collected large-scale data from three disparate domains and traced repeated attempts, finding broadly consistent empirical support across all three domains that systematically verifies our model predictions. Together, our findings unveil detectable yet previously unknown early signals that enable us to identify failure dynamics that will lead to ultimate success. Given the ubiquitous nature of failure and the paucity of quantitative approaches to understand it, these results represent an initial step towards the deeper understanding of the complex dynamics underlying failure.

AGENDA:

6:15pm - Socializing and Refreshments
6:30pm - Presentation by Yian Yin, McCormick School of Engineering: "Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security"
7pm - Hacking session: project and learning groups

For more info: data-science-nights.org

Supporting Groups:

This event is supported by the Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems and the Northwestern Data Science Initiative.

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