Events
Past Event
Data Science Nights - JANUARY 2022 Meeting (Speaker: Qian Cao, U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:15 PM
Details
JANUARY MEETING: Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 5:15pm (US Central) via Zoom.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly talks on data science techniques or applications, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Aspiring, beginning, and advanced data scientists are welcome!
AGENDA:
5:15: Data Science Night Meet & Greet on Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97300898035
5:30: Presentation by Qian Cao on Zoom
6:00: Post-talk coding on Gather Town
SPEAKER: Qian Cao, Visiting Scientist, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
TITLE: Turning a bone imaging research project into a job at the FDA
ABSTRACT: 1 in 5 American women over age 50 has osteoporosis, which increases the risk of bone fracture and can lead to hospitalizations and premature death in older people. Assessment of bone fragility is a key part of staging and management of osteoporosis. Bone mineral density (BMD) is commonly used for evaluating fracture risk and can be measured by quantitative computed tomography (CT) or dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However, bone fragility also depends on both mineral distribution and microstructure. Therefore, recent efforts have emphasized characterization of bone microarchitecture (or bone texture) as a basis for more reliable estimates of fragility and disease progression. I will briefly discuss my research in measurement of bone microstructure and development of texture biomarkers in CT. I will also discuss my experience as a research fellow at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
BIO: Qian Cao is a Visiting Scientist at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he works on projects involving assessment of bone health. He completed his PhD in 2020 in the Dept of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where he developed new 3D imaging and reconstruction methods to visualize bone at higher resolution, as well as new analysis methods. Following graduation, he worked at the FDA for almost a year as a research fellow on developing texture biomarkers for the assessment of bone health.
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.
Time
Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 5:15 PM - 7:30 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Hamsa Bastani, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "Challenges in Achieving Human-AI Collaboration"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Hamsa Bastani, Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions, and Statistics and Data Science, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Title:
Challenges in Achieving Human-AI Collaboration
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Hamsa Sridhar Bastani is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions (OID) and Statistics and Data Science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she co-direct the Wharton Healthcare Analytics Lab. Her research sits at the intersection of machine learning, operations research, and economics. She studies how to design, deploy, and evaluate AI systems that empower human decision-makers and improve societal outcomes.
Professor Bastani aims to combine methodological depth with implementation in consequential environments. She has worked with national governments to deploy algorithms at the country scale for targeted border COVID-19 screening and essential medicine access, and has co-led one of the first large field studies of generative AI tutors in high school mathematics. She studies both the mathematical properties of algorithms and the way people respond to them.
Her research has been published in leading outlets including Nature, Management Science, Operations Research, and PNAS, and has garnered numerous recognitions, including the Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research, the INFORMS Pierskalla Award for best healthcare paper, and the George Nicholson Prize. Previously, she graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 2012 with an A.M. in physics and an A.B. in physics and mathematics, completed her PhD in Stanford's Electrical Engineering department under the supervision of Mohsen Bayati, and spent a year as a Herman Goldstine postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99847338986
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, networks, and artificial intelligence. 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, May 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks with NU Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
NICO is looking for participants to share 12-15 minute lightning talks on their current research. To sign up, please fill out this short survey. These are open to Northwestern graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars!
All talks will be given in person at Chambers Hall and this event will also be livestreamed via Zoom.
Speakers will be balanced based on their topics/disciplines in order to provide a broad representation of the research activities at NICO
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98031689779
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, networks, and artificial intelligence. 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, May 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)