Events
Past Event
Data Science Nights - FEBRUARY 2022 Meeting (Speaker: Emily Webber, Amazon)
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
Details
FEBRUARY MEETING: Monday, February 28, 2022 at 5:30pm (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!
ZOOM: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/7199764864
RSVP: https://forms.gle/RkAdfHHLCEKQPsqp8
AGENDA:
5:15 - 5:30 p.m. Meet & Greet
5:30 - 5:45 p.m. Talk by Emily Webber from Amazon
5:45 - 6:15 p.m. Extended Q&A
6:15 - 7:15 p.m. Meeting of people interested in taking on the organization of DSN for the future.
SPEAKER: Emily Webber, Senior Machine Learning Specialist Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
TITLE: A day in the life of the Amazon SageMaker (machine learning) team
ABSTRACT: Machine learning specialists at Amazon Web Services help customers make the best use of machine learning resources on the cloud to solve business challenges, improve operations, and promote innovation. Join us for a look at the exciting tools and interesting problems data scientists get to work with, in a talk by Senior Machine Learning Specialist, Emily Webber. We will also hear about Webber's path to becoming a data scientist, while keeping connected to academia and providing mentorship.
BIO: Emily Webber is currently a Senior Machine Learning Specialist Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). She is also an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and a machine learning mentor at 1871, a startup incubator. Webber earned her MS from the University of Chicago in 2017, where she interned at Data Science for Social Good. Webber has worked for IssueVoter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and simMachines (ML software company). She is a keynote speaker at Amazon Web Services, and has a YouTube video channel on SageMaker with 150,000+ views.
YOU can make a difference at DSN
The graduate students and postdocs organizing Data Science Nights (DSN) are evaluating the possibility of expanding the types of events comprising DSN and determining the optimal frequency for different types of events. In order to best understand what the Northwestern community needs, we have prepared a short survey to guide our decision making. If you know anyone potentially interested in DSN, please share this survey with them. Thank you for taking the time to help improve DSN!
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.
Thanks to our co-host in this talk, AI@NU!
Time
Monday, February 28, 2022 at 5:30 PM - 7:15 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - March 2026 - Speaker: Dawei Xie, Department of Computer Science
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
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M416, Technological Institute
Details
MARCH MEETING: Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
ESAM Conference Room, Tech M416
2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Dawei Xie, PhD student, Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University, working with Prof. Marcelo Worsley in the tiilt Lab.
TALK TITLE:
AI-Augmented Learning Analytics for Understanding Collaborative Discussions
ABSTRACT:
Collaborative learning has been recognized as an important skill for the 21st century, yet understanding what constitutes high-quality collaborative discussion remains a challenge. This talk explores how AI systems might move beyond traditional behavioral metrics to support nuanced semantic interpretations of collaborative learning. I present our recent work on an AI-augmented analytics system that transforms real-time group discussions into structured representations, and enables educators to explore collaboration quality through interaction with a conversational agent. I discuss both the technical architecture and the design considerations around how users and AI can jointly shape analytical outputs. Finally, I share findings on how this interplay can afford richer, more grounded sensemaking through analytical dialogue.
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
FUTURE DATES:
Data Science Nights will be held on Thursday evenings in the winter and spring terms, with future dates on April 30, and May 28, 2026.
Time
Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
M416, Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Spring Series returns on April 8th!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
The Wednesdays@NICO Speaker Series returns on April 8th for the spring term, running through May 20th, 2026. Detailed speaker info will be shared in the coming weeks.
Speakers:
4/08/2026 - Yu-Ru Lin - University of Pittsburgh
4/15/2026 - Nihar Shah - Carnegie Mellon University
4/22/2026 - Michelle Birkett - Northwestern University
4/29/2026 - Lightning Talks with NU Scholars - Sign up here!
5/06/2026 - Daniel Stouffer - Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Germany (NU Alum '07)
5/13/2026 - Hamsa Bastani - University of Pennsylvania
5/20/2026 - Andreia Sofia Teixeira - Northeastern University London
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: Zoom links will be available
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, April 8, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)