Episodes
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UVA just opened the doors to the nation's first School of Data Science. The new school, funded by an extraordinary $120 million gift from Jaffray and Merrrill Woodriff and the Quantitative Foundation, will offer undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees. On this episode of Hoos in STEM, Data Science professors, Prince Afriyie and Brian Wright, tell us all about the process of designing the curriculum for this industry-leading school, and what their first cohort of undergraduate students can expect when classes start in August.
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Back in April, UVA was excited to welcome the Story Collider team to Charlottesville for the second year running. During a special recording at Carr's Hill, four UVA STEM leaders told personal stories about their lives, their careers, and how personal stories and scientific inquiry intertwine.
We hope you'll head over to Story Collider to hear from Madhur Behl, head of UVA's Autonomous Racing Team; and Hoos in STEM is very excited to share the other three stories from some familiar guests! Here's the Dean of UVA's Medical School Melina Kibbe, Astrophysicist David Nichols, and Environmental Scientist Karen McGlathery.
The Story Collider's mission is to reveal the vibrant role that science plays in all of our lives through the art of personal storytelling.
Check out all the Story Collider episodes: https://www.storycollider.org/podcast
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Missing episodes?
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Time for HOOS in STEM to celebrate our graduating scientists! In this episode, producers Reeya Verma and Catherine Cossaboom interview fourth-year Hoos Vy Le (a published organic chemist and exemplar of the USOAR program), Grant GianGrassio (a biologist and Rhodes Scholar who founded the Virginia Medical Review), Sam Goldberg (a published mathematician who has proved striking theorems related to prime numbers), and Alex Walsh (a swimming Olympic medalist, world champion, and computer scientist). Join us as we celebrate their pursuits in and out of the classroom — as shining examples of our amazing Class of 2024!
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Dr. Scott Doney is a superstar environmental scientist, the Kington Professor in Environmental Change at UVA and Assistant Director of Ocean Climate Science at the White House. In this Earth Day episode, he sits down with host Dr. Ken Ono to discuss the devastating effects of climate change on the world's oceans and our coastal environments, a well as the latest approaches to fight the climate crisis--including the recent U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan, a roadmap to harnessing the power of the ocean to address climate change.
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Dr. George Bloom is a renowned cell biologist whose longtime focus has been deciphering the cellular processes at the heart of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease, such as the buildup of amyloid-β peptides and tau protein tangles. In this episode, he sits down with host Dr. Ken Ono to discuss our understanding of Alzheimer's mechanisms, the current state of treatment, recent advances in diagnostic technology, and the future of research into neurodegenerative disorders.
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Dr. Mona Sloane is a superstar sociologist studying the intersection of technology and society. She leads the Co-Opting AI series, as well as UVA's Sloane Lab, which studies AI ethics, policy, and transparency. In this episode, she sits down with host Dr. Ken Ono to discuss the ethics of generative AI, the "social infrastructure" being created by AI, and how that infrastructure influences our society.
As of release (April 5th, 2024), the Sloane Lab is looking for a postdoc to conduct qualitative research on AI and HR management. Find out more on Dr. Sloane's website.
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Dr. Karen Kafadar is a renowned statistician who has worked across the country in government, industry, and academics. In this episode, she sits down with host Ken Ono to discuss her long history of statistics: from early mentors to her work in forensic science and her time growing UVA's Department of Statistics as Chair. They also discuss how UVA's statisticians can be found everywhere --from space travel to medicine to AI--and the role of statistical expertise in a changing world.
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This week, Professor Mar Hicks of UVA's School of Data Science and Margot Lee Shetterly, author of "Hidden Figures," join host Ken Ono to discuss the remarkable women whose contributions to STEM have been forgotten--from biologists to code-breakers to the "human computers" whose computations helped America win the Space Race.
That's why they're announcing the launch of the Human Computer Project Census--an effort to document the names and stories of NASA's human computers. And they're looking for students and faculty to help. Participants will collect oral and recorded history, search through archives, and review primary and secondary sources to recover the names and biographies of the women who worked at NASA from 1935 to 1980.
The deadline to apply for this paid internship is Monday, March 11th, 2024. The internship starts in early June. The application can be found here.
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UVA third-year Astrophysics major Samuel Crowe holds a distinct honor-- he's one of, if not the only undergraduate Principal Investigator with access to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Last year, his research proposal was accepted as one of just 249 programs selected to make use of the telescope's valuable time.
In this episode, Sam sits down with host Ken Ono to discuss his early love for astrophysics and history, his mentors and training at UVA, and what it means to lead a project exploring the origins of massive stars.
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Dr. Melina Kibbe is a vascular surgeon, Chief Health Affairs Officer, and the Dean of UVA's School of Medicine. In this episode, she sits down with host Ken Ono to discuss breakthrough technologies coming out of the School of Medicine, including the artificial pancreas and targeted nanofibers meant to prevent scarring. They also talk about her path into medicine and administration, advice for women getting into STEM, and the groundbreaking for the Paul and Dianne Manning Institute for Biotechnology--a game-changer for UVA and for the entire medical community.
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How will institutions of higher learning respond to changes in the workforce as a result of AI? What role will universities play in the evolving era of big data and the Internet of Things? How can science and the humanities work together to shape the future, not just react to external challenges?
To answer those questions, the University of Virginia has launched its Futures Initiative to help plan for the next 10 years in higher education. The Initiative will draw together an interdisciplinary group of leaders from across the University to examine current drivers of change in academia and chart a path for the next 10 years--a complement to President Ryan's 2030 "Great and Good" Plan.
This episode is a conversation featuring the three leaders of UVA’s Futures Initiative--Ken Ono, STEM Advisor to the Provost; Christa Acampora, Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; and Phil Bourne, founding Dean of the School of Data Science.
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What's the nature of matter and energy? What would cold fusion mean for our energy systems? What is quantum physics -- and why was Einstein mistaken about it?
These are just a few of the questions being asked by UVA's physicists, whose investigations of the universe collectively span from the smallest subatomic particles to the densest neutron stars. This week, Professor Ono is joined by theoretical physicists David Nichols and Marija Vucelja.
Dr. Nichols studies the nature of gravity itself--how gravitational waves bend spacetime at the speed of light and the sophisticated equipment required to measure those effects. Dr. Vucelja, an expert in non-equilibrium systems, describes her breakthroughs in studying the Mpemba Effect--a counterintuitive phenomenon where hot liquids actually freeze faster than cold ones. They also explain some hot topics in pop physics, like cold fusion energy generation and the powerful promises of quantum computing.
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How does the brain develop, change, and decline over a lifetime? What can we do to fight conditions like Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy? Dr. Jaideep Kapur and Dr. Sarah Kucenas, Director and Co-Director of UVA's Brain Institute, are committed to answering these questions.
They discuss Dr. Kapur's work with epilepsy patients, Dr. Kucenas' use of zebrafish brain models, and UVA's $75-million investment into a Grand Challenge called Brain and Neuroscience--an interdisciplinary effort pulling together biologists, medical professionals, engineers, and data scientists to pioneer advances in neuroscience and map the workings of the brain.
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In this episode of UVA's Data Points Podcast, guest host Professor Ken Ono is joined by three UVA swimmers who are pursuing graduate degrees in data science and statistics while also performing as student-athletes: August Lamb, Kate Douglass, and Will Tenpas. They discuss student life, balancing academics with swimming, and how data science and mathematics are helping them win championships--plus, the growth of data science at UVA and how it helps swimmers improve performance.
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How can engineers of vastly different disciplines work together to solve problems in the modern world? By putting them all in one place! This week's guests are Jonathan Goodall and Laura Barnes, the Director and Associate Director of UVA's Link Lab, an interdisciplinary space for faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students across engineering fields to brainstorm and build together. The combined expertise allows them to solve problems in "cyber-physical systems"--the interaction between software, hardware, and the environment, including everything from tracking health data to flood mitigation to building autonomous racecars.
Link Lab 2023 Research Day | University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science
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What do erosion, urban planning, food insecurity, disaster relief, and the hunt for lost cities have for common? Big data can help identify and solve those problems--that's the domain of our guest this week, UVA Professor Dr. Bill Basener. Dr Basener is a Professor at the School of Data Science and a genuine polymath, with publications in machine learning, signal processing, game theory, ecological economics, evolutionary genetics, and more. In this episode, he discusses how remote sensing techniques--long range images of the Earth taken by satellites and aircrafts--and how he and other scientists use that data to identify what's on the ground and how society can help.
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Wouldn’t it be magnificent if we could reach back in time to witness the beginning of the universe…back to the Big Bang? What would we see? What would we learn? Well, UVA’s Bradley Johnson, Associate Professor of Astronomy is doing just that! He’s a world expert on Cosmic Microwave Background, known as CMB. It’s the faint glow of the flash of light that burst from the early universe. Tune in to hear about his research and the technologies he's building to peek back over 13 billion years to the origins of the universe.
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Back in April, UVA was excited to welcome the Story Collider team to Charlottesville. During a special recording at Carr's Hill, five UVA STEM leaders told stories about their careers, their research and some pretty wild experiences they've had along the way...
We hope you'll head over to Story Collider to hear from Sara Maloni and Sarah Kucenas and Hoos in STEM is very excited to share the other three stories! Here's UVA Data Science Dean Phil Bourne, UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West, and Professor Scott Doney.
The Story Collider's mission is to reveal the vibrant role that science plays in all of our lives through the art of personal storytelling.
Listen to UVA's Sarah Kucenas on Story Collider!
Check out all the Story Collider episodes: https://www.storycollider.org/podcast
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Dr. “Ram” Ramasubramanian came to UVA to serve as Vice President for Research in 2017. Prior to that he developed new microneedle technology that was inspired by mosquitos. In this episode he discusses how his upbringing in Chennai, India, influenced his approach to engineering research and shares a little bit about two of his passions, Indian classical music and high-altitude mountaineering.
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Big data is everywhere! This week’s featured guests, Phil Bourne, founding Dean of the UVA School of Data Science, and Cathy O’Neil, world-famous author, mathematician and UVA Visiting Scholar, talk about the opportunities and concerns in our world of big data.
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