Programs and Events

Machine Learning in Public Health/Smart Cities: Public Talk and Workshop hosted by BCCDC, February 5

The BC Centre for Disease Control is organizing a series of five special seminars and workshops on Machine Learning for Precision Public Health, as part of our Centre’s larger effort to incorporate more data science into the work we do along with our academic and community partners. Taking place over the next few months, these events will cover topics including data-driven decision-making in public health, machine learning algorithms, data visualization, and big data ethics.

Our first session runs Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 at Latham Hall, UBC Medical Student and Alumni Centre (2750 Heather St). There will be a Grand Rounds seminar presentation, titled “Public Health and Smart Cities” from 12-1pm. This talk is open to anyone (no registration required), and can be attended in person or online via this link . Dr. Jennifer Gardy (a BCCDC/UBC researcher now joining the Gates Foundation as Deputy Director, Surveillance, Data, and Epidemiology) will introduce the emerging application of data science and machine learning approaches within public health and clinical microbiology, and Mr. Tom Schenk (former Chief Data Officer, City of Chicago, currently Director of Smart Cities at KPMG) will share the City of Chicago’s experience in using machine learning algorithms to build a smarter and healthier city, including improving water quality microbial forecasting and prioritizing restaurants for food safety inspections.

For those who would like to explore these topics in more detail, the seminar will be followed by a Machine Learning for Precision Public Health Workshop. Running from 1:15 – 3pm in the same space, participants will have the chance to join small group, in-depth discussions led by Dr. Gardy and Mr. Schenk to learn more about the application of machine learning in public health. The workshop will guide participants in thinking about potential opportunities of machine learning application in their own public health work, identifying general barriers in launching such projects, and discussing possible solutions to overcome these barriers. Please register  to participate in the workshop as spaces are limited; no prior experience with machine learning is required.

Speaker bios:

Jennifer Gardy is an Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health of the University of British Columbia, and a Senior Scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Health Genomics, and as of February, 2019, she will be the Deputy Director, Surveillance, Data, and Epidemiology at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is a leader in using whole-genome sequencing of bacterial and viral pathogens to understand outbreak and epidemic dynamics, and her work incorporates machine learning and data visualization methods. She was named one of BC’s most influential women in STEM by BC Business Magazine, and has received numerous awards, including a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Science, Technology & Research.

Tom Schenk is the Director of Smart Cities at KPMG Chicago, where his work focuses on using big data to inform decision-making. In his former role of Chief Data Officer at the City of Chicago, Tom took a leadership role in many data-driven projects to address public health needs, for example, the development of an algorithm to predict food-borne illness. He was named as one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2018.

For questions or more information, please contact workshop coordinators Hsiu-Ju Chang and Mike Irvine .

CAIDA & DSI Talk featuring George Dyson: Artificial Intelligence – From Analog to Digital and Back, March 7

The digital revolution, conceived in the 17th century, took electronic form when stored-program computers broke the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things in the aftermath of World War II. Nature uses digital coding, embodied in strings of nucleotides, for the storage, modification, error correction, and conveying of instructions from one generation to the next, but relies on analog coding, embodied in brains and nervous systems, for real-time intelligence and control. Technology will follow. The next step in the digital revolution will be the assembly of digital computers into analog systems whose nature is beyond programmable control.

Speaker bio:

GEORGE DYSON, a dual citizen of Canada and the USA, is an independent historian of technology whose subjects have included the development (and redevelopment) of the Aleut kayak (Baidarka, 1986), the evolution of artificial intelligence (Darwin Among the Machines, 1997), a path not taken into space (Project Orion, 2002), and the origins of the digital universe at the hands of a small group of noncomformists who delivered the most destructive and the most constructive of human inventions at the same time (Turing’s Cathedral, 2012).

Location & time:

Forest Sciences Centre, Room 1221, March 7 (3:30PM)

For questions and more details, please send to: dsi.admin@science.ubc.ca

Deadlines extended - PIMS Workshop on Mathematical Sciences and Clean Energy Applications (May 21-24, UBC)

The deadlines for the Math and Clean Energy workshop has been extended:

-- Applications for funding: new deadline is Feb. 25

-- Submission of poster abstracts: new deadline is Feb. 25

-- Early-bird registration: new deadline is March 25

This information has just now been updated on our website: http://www.pims.math.ca/scientific-event/190521-pwmscea

You will see that we now have a list of 30 confirmed speakers from a wide variety of math, science and engineering university departments, as well as from industry.   Please feel free to advertise widely, in particular to graduate students and postdocs. No previous experience in clean energy applications is required. 

Hope to see you here in Vancouver in May.

CGF Grant Competition

This is to inform you that the Canadian Geological Foundation Grant Competition is now open. Applications will be accepted until March 31st, 2019.

Application forms available http://www.canadiangeologicalfoundation.org/

If you, or your organisation, has a project that meets one or more of the following criteria, please consider applying:

1. promote public interest in the value of geological sciences to society
2. aim to provide training to high school teachers in the field of earth sciences
3. further the application of geological sciences to the development of natural resources through national seminars and conferences
4. provide career education through the preparation of booklets on geological sciences
5. support for the publication of special scientific papers involving national cooperation
6. result in publication of general geology textbooks, displays, videos and films emphasizing Canada and involving national co-operation. And
7. involve geological societies in co-operative projects of national, long-term significance

Small grants <$10,000, Medium grants $10,001-$30,000, Large grants, and Multi-Year grants are available. See http://www.canadiangeologicalfoundation.org/ for details.

Please submit applications electronically by March 31st 2019 to CGF Secretary Eileen Van der Flier-Keller at evanderf@sfu.ca

Employment Opportunties

Climate Change and Contaminant Transport in the Arctic, University of Manitoba

We seek a MSc student to study the impact of glacial melt on the transport of heavy metals in subsurface sediments.  Global warming and increasing anthropogenic activity in the Arctic will have a profound effect on hydrological cycles, permafrost thaw and glacial melting. The goal of the project is to understand how low-temperature, high-latitude waters can transport contaminants in sub-surface environments.  This project will involve both natural sample characterization and experiments to better understand the processes observed in the environment. 

Interested students should contact Mostafa Fayek, Center for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), Dept. Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Mostafa.Fayek@umanitoba.ca.  Preferred start date for this project is September 2nd, 2019.