ICDS Day showcases interdisciplinary research opportunities, available resources
Posted on November 20, 2024Editor’s Note: A version of this article originally appeared on Penn State News.
The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) recently hosted ICDS Day MMXXIV: Shaping the Future of Penn State’s Digitial Research, a symposium that aimed to foster innovation and explore the intersection of digital technologies and research on Oct. 23 at HUB-Robeson Center.
The event, which brought over 70 attendees, showcased 13 researchers and 24 students who are currently pursuing or seeking to pursue interdisciplinary research endeavors including computational and data sciences.
Penn State faculty, staff and students and industry experts participated in various panel discussions, flash talks, breakout and networking sessions that covered topics such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, research funding and resources, and data ethics and analytics. ICDS researchers led many of these discussions and spoke about their experiences utilizing AI and computer visualization, as well as the RISE engineering team and the Center for Immersive Experiences, to aid in their research projects.
ICDS co-hires Keith Cheng, distinguished professor of pathology, of biochemistry and molecular biology and of pharmacology; Vasant Honavar, professor of information sciences and technology and ICDS associate director; Soundar Kumara, Pearce Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and director of the Center of Applications of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to Industry (AIMI); and Edward O’Brien, professor of chemistry, led a panel aimed at providing insights into their current research efforts as well as how to find and manage funding for large, collaborative projects.
“The panel on developing concepts and teams for large grants was very informative. The panelists broke down the complex task into digestible activities and shared lessons learned,” said Wayne Figurelle, ICDS assistant director of innovation and outreach.
Chad Hanna, ICDS co-hire and professor of physics; Josh Stapleton, associate research professor and Materials Characterization Lab director; and Paul Esker, professor of epidemiology and field crop pathology, also spoke on their research successes using resources from ICDS and affiliated centers and facilities.
Bhavika Jain, third-year undergraduate student studying computer science and mathematics, and Praneeth Sunkavalli and Jainil Kakka, Penn State Great Valley graduate students, were celebrated with achievements for their research at the ICDS Day student poster session.
Jain, whose poster was awarded first place, worked in collaboration with Travis Hughes, a computer science and engineering student who recently graduated in August, under the mentorship of Mahfuza Farooque, associate teaching professor in the Penn State College of Engineering. Their research developed a machine learning-based recommendation tool to monitor and adjust social media content for users who are frequently engaging with sad content. The goal with this research is to balance out content exposure and promote a more positive online experience.
Sunkavalli and Kakka’s research was under the mentorship of Nonna Sorokina, assistant professor of business/finance at Penn State Scranton and AIMI fellow, and Dusan Ramljak, assistant professor of software engineering at Penn State Great Valley. This project quantified pressuring success in soccer matches. Pressuring, according to the students, is defined as when one opponent attempts to win the ball from another opponent. The goal of the research was to identify key indicators of successful pressing and explore predictive models that can enhance the execution of these strategies in a match. This research took second place.
Many attendees expressed the significance of interdisciplinary research, as well as learning lessons from ICDS researchers covering a broad range of topics.
“One of my key takeaways from ICDS Day was the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Sunkavalli said. “Seeing how different fields approach data analytics inspired us to think outside the box in our own research.”
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