#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/20/24

I had an earlier start today, which meant lots of time for a run and talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a slate of talks at the Maryland Robotics Center by:
Merihan Alhafnawi - expressive robot swarms (!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L-9GTmnifE
Krishna Murthy Jatavallabhula - world models for robotics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIGuhBoJzQ
Jana Pavlasek - distributed inference for multi-robot collaboration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmmls9vVeRo
Benjamin Rivière - search-based decision making - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwUxfQylLb4

Next was an incredible conversation between Anat Admati and Luigi Zingales on the myth of objectivity in economics, the importance of considering power in research, and so much more at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKZa9ym3vFg

Next was a fantastic panel on AI ethics at The Institute for Learning-enabled Optimization at Scale (TILOS) with Nisheeth Vishnoi, Hoda Heidari, and David Danks. The conversation goes deep into the importance of considering language and framing around AI systems, the choices we make when designing and deploying systems, and more. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSBTb95k7ng&t=7s

Next was an excellent panel on the evolution of poker strategy at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) with Jennifer Shahade, Nate Silver, Xuan Liu, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Jeffrey Ma. Analytics and algorithm use for poker strategy is much more advanced than business in large part because of its structure, but hearing about how this field has adapted to using these tools is very instructive. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuNhH78VlJs

Next was a great talk by Ramya Korlakai Vinayak on learning from diverse and small data at TILOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsNUSQ19SbI

Next was an engaging panel on the state of VC in Africa at the Africa Tech Summit with Adesoji Solanke, Ivy Macharia, Edmund Higenbottam, Andreata Muforo, and Ngetha Waithaka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfd3a-jCdxI

Next was an insightful panel on how teams are using soccer analytics at the SSAC with Jesse Marsch, Ian Graham, Sarah Rudd, and Laurie Shaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXdeXWw-w8k

Next was an interesting panel on resilience and agility in African VC at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford with Ido Sum, Yewande Odumosu, Dirk Holshausen, and Asante Thabethe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFk-V9fWn8

Next was a nice talk by Roy Fox on how large multimodal models can help in behavior learning at TILOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYS9c7MckM

Next was a short talk by Laura Forlano, Ph.D. and Danya Glabau on cyborg theory (!) at The Burnes Center for Social Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU5SjSdcMuk

Next was a fascinating talk by Jean-Paul Faguet on the horrific encomienda system, the colonial state, and long-run development in Colombia at the Santa Fe Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH43Cb9kamo

Last was a wide-ranging panel on competition law and regulation of digital markets in developing countries with host Vellah Kigwiru, Friso Bostoen, Hardin Ratshisusu, and Manjushree RM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuaNhOI_x08