Science Connects Webinars

 

Science Connects: Data permutations: How to understand human speech, the spread of COVID-19, and the Alberta electorate. Is there a natural order to the sounds produced by human vocal folds? Did COVID-19 cases progress differently for people of different genders or age groups? How do the political priorities of Alberta’s electorate differ? These questions can be answered using the same statistical tool: the permutation test. While the classic permutation test is more than 100 years old, the heavy computational burden makes it infeasible to use in the modern era of big complex datasets, such as audio recordings. Learn how scientists use powerful mathematical theorems from geometry and functional analysis to remove this computational burden, allowing for efficient statistical testing in a variety of complicated settings.

Join Adam Kashlak, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, as he explains how complex seemingly unrelated datasets are actually not as dissimilar as one may expect.

Thursday, November 19, 2020
12:00 - 1:00pm
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Science Connects: Searching for life outside of Earth: NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission
Join planetary geology expert Chris Herd, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and returned sample scientist on the Perseverance mission, as he provides an overview of what the Mars rover is able to do and the main reasons why we want to bring samples back from Mars. Herd also shares why he became involved in the Mission and his ongoing role on NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission.
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Science Connects:  Listening to the night: Eavesdropping on communication in wild bats and mice
Join Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, dean of the Faculty of Science, as she shares her research on the biology of acoustic communication in bats and mice, two diverse groups of mammals that communicate using ultrasound. She will characterize the communication behaviors of these mammals and determine how ecological, physiological, and anthropogenic effects mediate those behaviors under natural contexts.View Webinar

Science Connects: Community Approaches to Housing Affordability. 
Hear Joshua Evans, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,  as he examines various policy approaches to housing affordability. Using examples from Edmonton, Alberta, he will emphasize the critical role of community housing in Canada’s current and future housing system.
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The science of Rock, Paper, Scissors: What we can learn about decision making from simple games
Hear from Ben Dyson, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, as he shares the origins of the game and what research tells us about how decision making changes as a result of success and failure. He will also step back and paint a bigger picture as to how the outcome-action associations we see during simple games might also have implications for understanding education and gambling.
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Stories from the Ice: Perspectives from new Canadian Arctic Ice Cores
Ice cores provide tools to interpret current and future climate conditions critical to human health, food security, water supply and more. Hear from Alison Criscitiello, UAlberta researcher and executive director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab, as she shares her discoveries from the Canadian North.
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Cretaceous Dinosaurs in Northern Alberta
Hear from associate professor Corwin Sullivan as he shares his discoveries of dinosaurs and other Cretaceous vertebrates of Northern Alberta. Learn how they help to piece together the bigger picture of dinosaur distribution and evolution in ancient North America. 
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Glycomics: Sugars and Human Health
Sugars and carbohydrates are involved in the development of every major disease, from viruses in the lungs to cancers. Hear from Lara Mahal, Canada Excellence Research Chair, as she discusses how sugars affect your health, including research related to pandemic viruses. 
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