News and Notes by Date
listings 1-3 of 3
August 2023
08-29-2023
Bard College is pleased to announce that Kerri-Ann Norton ’04, assistant professor of computer science, has been awarded $31,657 as part of a larger study funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study uses computer models to investigate the potential success of novel drug combinations for clinical cancer treatment. Led by professor Trachette Jackson at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the goal is to improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs by using computer models to help characterize the dynamics between malignant tumors and the body’s immune responses and to improve clinicians’ ability to select the most promising combinations of drugs in clinical trials.
Professor Norton will address some of the challenges associated with analyzing and calibrating agent-based models (ABMs) in order to develop an approach that leverages ordinary differential equation (ODE) models to bridge the computational gap between ABMs and experimental data at the cellular level. Norton’s research expertise is in multiscale agent-based modeling of tumor microenvironments and she will lead the development, simulation, and analysis of the agent-based cancer model. She will also help design the tumor-immune interactions within the ABM.
The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. The NIH has 27 member institutes, including the NCI, which leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. The NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases.
Professor Norton will address some of the challenges associated with analyzing and calibrating agent-based models (ABMs) in order to develop an approach that leverages ordinary differential equation (ODE) models to bridge the computational gap between ABMs and experimental data at the cellular level. Norton’s research expertise is in multiscale agent-based modeling of tumor microenvironments and she will lead the development, simulation, and analysis of the agent-based cancer model. She will also help design the tumor-immune interactions within the ABM.
The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. The NIH has 27 member institutes, including the NCI, which leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. The NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases.
Photo: Kerri-Ann Norton, assistant professor of computer science.
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Awards,Computer Science,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty,Giving,Grants |
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Awards,Computer Science,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty,Giving,Grants |
08-25-2023
Bard College is pleased to announce that it has received $124,936 from the Heising-Simons Foundation for a five-year project to simulate and detect potential biosignatures from exoplanets. The project, led by Assistant Professor of Physics Clara Sousa-Silva, will look for potential markers of life beyond Earth by expanding our understanding of how molecules behave in different atmospheric environments. “Currently, the most pressing limitation in the characterization of planets, and, ultimately, the detection of life, is our lack of understanding of molecules and their environmental interactions,” professor Sousa-Silva explains. “My research proposal aims to address this problem through a combination of quantum chemistry, astrobiology, and planetary sciences.”
Professor Sousa-Silva’s previous work focused on simulating spectra (the band of colors produced by the separation of components of light by wavelength) for biosignature gases. Now, with the development of more advanced observational technologies, she is able to apply that work more directly by studying the atmospheric spectrum of exoplanets and identifying molecules connected to life. In 2019, professor Sousa-Silva was named a 51 Pegasi b fellow with the Foundation. The fellowship, which is named for the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a Sun-like star, provides three years of postdoctoral support to early-career scholars in planetary science and astronomy.
The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation that funds work that advances sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enables groundbreaking research in science, enhances the education of our youngest learners, and supports human rights for all people.
Professor Sousa-Silva’s previous work focused on simulating spectra (the band of colors produced by the separation of components of light by wavelength) for biosignature gases. Now, with the development of more advanced observational technologies, she is able to apply that work more directly by studying the atmospheric spectrum of exoplanets and identifying molecules connected to life. In 2019, professor Sousa-Silva was named a 51 Pegasi b fellow with the Foundation. The fellowship, which is named for the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a Sun-like star, provides three years of postdoctoral support to early-career scholars in planetary science and astronomy.
The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation that funds work that advances sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enables groundbreaking research in science, enhances the education of our youngest learners, and supports human rights for all people.
Photo: Clara Sousa-Silva, assistant professor of physics at Bard College. Photo by Melanie Gonick
Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Staff | Subject(s): Awards,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty,Giving,Grants,Physics Program |
Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Staff | Subject(s): Awards,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty,Giving,Grants,Physics Program |
08-22-2023
Speaking with Bard professors Francine Prose and Stephen Shore, Susan D’Agostino ’91 probes the legal and creative implications of the use of generative AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E for Inside Higher Ed. At the heart of the debate is whether these programs “copy” journalistic and creative works, or whether they could be considered “fair use,” D’Agostino writes. Alongside this concern is whether the output of these programs could be considered art—or human. “The question of ‘what is a human being?’ is resurfacing through this and starting really good discussions,” Prose told D’Agostino. “There’s so much pressure to dehumanize or commodify people, to tell young people that they are their Instagram page.” Some imagine a future where these kinds of programs are used to assist human artmaking, a future which may have already arrived. “Shore recently asked DALL-E—a generative AI image tool—to create a photograph in his style,” D’Agostino writes. Reviewing DALL-E’s output, Shore was “satisfied, if not wowed, by the result.” “I would have made one decision slightly differently, but it was pretty good,” he said.
Photo: Susan D’Agostino ’91.
Meta: Type(s): Alumni,Faculty | Subject(s): Alumni/ae,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty |
Meta: Type(s): Alumni,Faculty | Subject(s): Alumni/ae,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Faculty |
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