Process Mining with LLMs
David Obembe, a recent University of Tartu graduate, discussed his Masters thesis on integrating LLMs with process mining tools. He explained how process mining uses event logs to create maps that identify inefficiencies in business processes. David shared his research on LLMs' potential to enhance process mining, including experiments evaluating their performance and future improvements using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).
24 Sep 202426min
Open Animal Tracks
Our guest today is Risa Shinoda, a PhD student at Kyoto University Agricultural Systems Engineering Lab, where she applies computer vision techniques. She talked about the OpenAnimalTracks dataset and what it was used for. The dataset helps researchers predict animal footprint. She also discussed how she built a model for predicting tracks of animals. She shared the algorithms used and the accuracy they achieved. She also discussed further improvement opportunities for the model.
17 Sep 202422min
Bird Distribution Modeling with Satbird
This episode features an interview with Mélisande Teng, a PhD candidate at Université de Montréal. Her research lies in the intersection of remote sensing and computer vision for biodiversity monitoring.
10 Sep 202439min
Ant Encounters
In this interview with author Deborah Gordon, Kyle asks questions about the mechanisms at work in an ant colony and what ants might teach us about how to build artificial intelligence. Ants are surprisingly adaptive creatures whose behavior emerges from their complex interactions. Aspects of network theory and the statistical nature of ant behavior are just some of the interesting details you'll get in this episode.
26 Aug 202431min
Computing Toolbox
This season it's become clear that computing skills are vital for working in the natural sciences. In this episode, we were fortunate to speak with Madlen Wilmes, co-author of the book "Computing Skills for Biologists: A Toolbox". We discussed the book and why it's a great resource for students and teachers. In addition to the book, Madlen shared her experience and advice on transitioning from academia to an industry career and how data analytic skills transfer to jobs that your professionals might not always consider. Join us and learn more about the book and careers using transferable skills.
19 Aug 202438min
Biodiversity Monitoring
In this episode, we talked shop with Hager Radi about her biodiversity monitoring work. While biodiversity modeling may sound simple, count organisms and mark their location, there is a lot more to it than that! Incomplete and biased data can make estimations hard. There are also many species with very few observations in the wild. Using machine learning and remote sensing data, scientists can build models that predict species distributions with limited data. Listen in and hear about Hager's work tackling these challenges and the tools she has built.
14 Aug 202432min
Hacking the Colony
Today, Ashay Aswale and Tony Lopez shared their work on swarm robotics and what they have learned from ants. Robotic swarms must solve the same problems that eusocial insects do. What if your pheromone trail goes cold? What if you're getting bad information from a bad-actor within the swarm? Answering these questions can help tackle serious robotic challenges. For example, a swarm of robots can lose a few members to accidents and malfunctions, but a large robot cannot. Additionally, a swarm could be host to many castes like an ant colony. Specialization with redundancy built in seems like a win-win! Tune in and hear more about this fascinating topic.
8 Aug 202441min
Primate Poses
During this season we have talked with researchers working to utilize machine learning for behavioral observations. In previous episodes, you have heard about the software people like Richard use, but you haven't heard much from scientists modifying and using these tools for specific research cases. PhD student, Richard Vogg, is working with multi-camera set-ups to track lemurs and macaques solving puzzle boxes in the wild. His work is part of a larger movement to automate behavioral analyses of video data. Listen in and learn why this tech is useful and why multi-camera setups are a good idea for more reliably identifying poses and individual animals.
31 Juli 202432min
