Mathematics - a language of collaboration
#esiStateOfTheArt talk
#esiStateOfTheArt talk by Featured ESI Academic of the month (February 2021): Prof Stuart Townley
| An Environment and Sustainability Institute research event | |
|---|---|
| Date | 22 February 2021 |
| Time | 13:00 to 14:00 |
| Place | Online/ MS Teams If you are not on our ESI mailing list and would like to attend this talk, please contact esidirector@exeter.ac.uk |
| Provider | Environment and Sustainability Institute |
| Speaker(s) | Stuart Townley, Professor of Applied Mathematics |
| Registration information | If you are not on our ESI mailing list and would like to attend this talk, please contact esidirector@exeter.ac.uk |
| Cost | Free |
| Organizer | Environment and Sustainability Institute |
| Tel | 01326259490 |
Event details
My talk is in two parts. In the first part, I will draw on my collaborations over the last decade - since joining the ESI - to illustrate how mathematics can be used to connect disciplines, distil the key essence of a problem, or to explore an idea.This will span applications of mathematics in ecology, renewable energy and healthcare.
In the second part, I will discuss in more detail a recent and on-going collaboration between maths and arts & humanities, specifically work with Alice Parfett and Kris Allerfeldt in History. Here, we explore issues of privacy, and especially emergent prejudice, in AI systems. Using simple toy models of disease networks, we show that prejudice can emerge due to feedbacks between data collection (e.g. key health stats) and being "led by the data" in making decisions (e.g. who to vaccinate). I will draw parallels with emergence of prejudice in social systems. I will conclude with a discussion of similar issues for AI in other parts of society.
Prof Stuart Townley
