Physics Program Presents
Predicting Sparsely Sampled Dynamics Across the Physical Sciences, and Channeling Comedy for Science Communication
Friday, April 12, 2024
Hegeman 107
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Eve Armstrong, New York Institute of Technology
Inference is a term that encompasses many techniques including machine learning and statistical data assimilation (SDA). Unlike machine learning, which harnesses predictive power from extremely large data sets, SDA is designed for sparsely sampled systems. This is the realm of study of any realistic system in nature. SDA was invented for numerical weather prediction, an inherently nonlinear – and chaotic – problem. My collaborators and I have taken SDA into new fields, to inform the role of neutrinos in astrophysics, biological neuronal networks, and an epidemiological population model tailored to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. We use SDA to seek solutions that are consistent with both sparse measurements and a partially-known dynamical model of the system from which those measurements arose. The versatility of SDA across vast disciplines (and vast temporal and spatial scales) shows how these “distinct” environments possess commonalities that can inform one another. In addition to pure science, I work on science communication. To that end, I will share some relevant techniques from comedy and theatrical improvisation.Eve Armstrong is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the New York Institute of Technology and a research associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. She studies information flow in nonlinear dynamical systems, by means of inference (an umbrella term for machine learning and the “data-driven” paradigm.) Her work spans astrophysics, neuroscience, and epidemiology, and her current focus is neutrino flavor physics in dense astrophysical environments. Also a comedy writer and theatre producer, Eve runs workshops in improvisation, storytelling, and standup comedy for young scientists in the NYC area who seek to develop their communication skills. Both her pure-science research and performance outreach are funded by the National Science Foundation.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Hegeman 107