June 15, Tuesday at 8 pm
Shubha Ramachandran (Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd)
Title: Groundwater and Us
Abstract: Nowhere is groundwater more important than in India where a quarter of the world’s groundwater is extracted annually—the highest in the world—which is greater than that pumped up by China and the United States combined. Up to 80 percent of the population relies on groundwater for both drinking and irrigation. In such a scenario how do we manage groundwater? What is the Million Well campaign in Bengaluru about?
Reading Material
http://bengaluru.urbanwaters.in/our-open-well-heritage-510/
http://bengaluru.urbanwaters.in/the-ground-beneath-our-feet-a-borewell-primer-929/
http://bengaluru.urbanwaters.in/million-wells/
June 17, Thrusday at 8 pm
Divya Uma (AzimPremji University, Bengaluru, India)
Title: Colour for fun and profit
Abstract: Nature is full of colour. Living organisms use colour for advertising varied information. In this presentation, we will look at how plants and animals use colour to their own benefit to signal various messages-- including pollination, dispersal, warning predators or attracting members of the opposite sex. We will briefly look at messages that can be conveyed through other sensory channels as well.
June 20, Sunday at 2 pm
Gautam Menon (The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India)
Title: Mathematical Models for Infectious Diseases
Abstract: I will describe what goes into mathematical and computational models for infectious diseases, using COVID-19 as an example. The talk will stress understanding and intuition while illustrating the many questions that models for disease spread can provide answers to. I'll talk briefly at the end about how models help governments in formulating their policies.
June 20, Sunday at 3 pm
Leelavati Narlikar (CSIR-NCL, India)
Title: Designing algorithms to learn from data
Abstract: Machine learning (ML) is a big topic today and is rapidly gaining popularity in all fields that deal with data. We will start with an introduction to different types of problems that can be addressed using ML, and then see how simple probabilities can be used to create powerful ML algorithms.
June 21, Monday at 8 pm
Asha Subramanian (Semantic Web India Private Limited,)
Title: Understanding Semantic Web and its Applications
Abstract: Semantic Web Technologies is a knowledge representation and applications technique that represents the knowledge regarding the world in a simple machine readable and interpretable form. Semantic web is increasingly being used in building efficient Natural Language Processing algorithms, Search Engine optimization applications, providing context-aware content and much more. Standard ML and AI algorithms along with semantic web techniques form a lethal combination for intelligent feature selection and automation of domain inputs in solving business problems. This talk will introduce the Semantic Web & its relevance in the data science canvas today, the components of semantic web applications and its relation with core concepts of Mathematics and Graph Theory. This talk will also take the audience through some of the applications that Semantic Web India is currently working on, in the Public Data applications vertical and the Life Sciences & Healthcare domain.
Reading Material:
http://www.linkeddatatools.com/semantic-web-basics (A easy to understand Semantic Web Primer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ap5FsxvjTQ (An interesting video on Semantic Web and related research areas)
June 23, Wednesday at 8 pm
Nutan Limaye (IIT Bombay, India)
Title: The charm in proving something is impossible: a complexity theoretic view
Abstract: If I asked you to represent the square-root of two as a fraction or if I asked you to name the largest prime number, then possibly after a bit of thought, you will say "that is impossible!". In mathematics, it is not enough to claim that something is impossible, but you should also prove it.
I will take a computational view towards proofs of impossibilities and introduce you to some concepts from a fascinating area of Theoretical Computer Science called Complexity Theory.
June 24, Thursday at 8 pm
Radhika Gupta (Temple University, Philadelphia, USA)
Title: What is the geometry of the universe?
Abstract: The geometry we mastered in school is Flat or Euclidean geometry. It is second nature to us because that's how our local world behaves. We are also familiar with spherical geometry because Earth is afterall not flat and it's surface is a two dimensional sphere. What options does the universe have to choose its geometry from? In this talk, I will introduce one of the finitely many options available called hyperbolic geometry. It is the geometry of floppy hats, corals and Pringles.