#AcademicRunPlaylist - 4/25/25

It was another nice day in the Midwest, and while spending time outside engaged in various activities I also listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great talk by Yoon Kim on the strengths and limitations of transformer models and methods to shore up those weaknesses at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDUsdNFjBMs

Next was the National Bureau of Economic Research investments in early career scientists symposium. This event is unfortunately very timely, with much of the US research infrastructure being eviscerated by the current administration, and these talks detail how self-destructive this will be for the US economy. I particularly liked the talk by Daniel P. Gross on mapping the US scientific training ecosystem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQbUALG6X4Y

Last was "Transgender History" by Susan Stryker. This book focuses on the period from post WW2 to the early 21st century, detailing many of the formative people, organizations, and events involving the trans community. This is a quick but enlightening read, and nicely supplements other histories that look at the LGBTQ+ movement more broadly. Highly recommend https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/susan-stryker/transgender-history-second-edition/9781478993889/