At this half-day conference, researchers, instructors, and practitioners from the UC Berkeley community gather to showcase the work being done in machine learning and language/culture study and to explore questions of language, language use, and technology from three perspectives: research, industry, theory.
What questions about humanistic inquiry does AI encourage us to ask?
What kinds of research and theoretical work is being done on AI and language/culture study on campus?
How can AI be applied/leveraged in language-related research, industry and career settings?
Date/Time: Wed, February 28 @ 1pm-5:15pm Location: 310 Sutardja Dai Hall (Banatao Auditorium)
The LLM Working Group is a community founded to facilitate conversations about Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI within academia. This 4-part series will provide fundamental knowledge of LLMs, and generate conversation about the promises and challenges of LLMs in different facets of academic work. Sessions will be interactive, encouraging participants to share their experiences, pose questions, and collaboratively explore the challenges and potential of these technologies in their respective fields. We encourage everyone to participate, regardless of their experience level with LLMs and GenAI. The LLM Working Group is a welcoming and supportive community for all.
In this first session, Generative AI and the Digital Humanities, Tim Tanghlerlini, Greg Niemeyer, Lisa Wymore, and Kayla van Kooten will share their experiences, posing questions about the future of LLMs in the context of the Digital Humanities. We will discuss the future of DH research using LLMs, as well as the role of LLMs in producing creative work—literature, video, music, and so on—and the concomitant issues of ownership, creativity, and originality that come with this production.
The UC Berkeley Digital Humanities Working Group is a research community founded to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations in the digital humanities and cultural analytics. Our gatherings are participant driven and provide a place for sharing research ideas (including brainstorming new ideas and receiving feedback from others), learning about the intersection of computational methods and humanistic inquiry, and connecting with others working in this space at Berkeley. We encourage everyone to participate, regardless of your experience level. The DH Working Group is a welcoming and supportive community for all things digital humanities.
Last Tuesday of most months!
February 27, 12:30pm-1:30pm
April 2, 12:30pm-1:30pm (rescheduled due to spring break)
What Are Vowels Made Of? Graphing a Classic Dataset with R
by Anna Björklund
Vowels are all around us. Mainstream US English has around twelve unique vowels. How can our brains tell these sounds apart? This blog post will help you answer this question by plotting vowel data from a classic American English dataset by Peterson and Barney (1952).
D-Lab is now publishing on Medium! Follow us to stay up to date on all D-Lab related written content, including our blog posts, thought pieces, and staff updates. We’ll also recommend interesting articles we find on Medium and beyond!
Linköping University in Sweden is seeking applicants for a postdoc position on using machine learning and causal inference to evaluate the impact of local development programs in Africa. The candidate will work on an interdisciplinary team towards the goals of Observatory of Poverty project, which is situated at the AI and Global Development Lab and the Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS). The AI and Global Development Lab and the Observatory of Poverty project are headed by Associate Professor Adel Daoud, and will mentor the candidate along with Assistant Professor Connor Jerzak at the University of Texas at Austin.
About 900 million people—one-third in Africa—live in extreme poverty. Operating on the assumption that life in impoverished communities is fundamentally so different that it can trap people in cycles of deprivation (‘poverty traps’), major development agencies have deployed a stream of development projects to break these cycles (‘poverty targeting’). However, scholars are currently unable to answer questions—such as in what capacity do poverty traps exist—as they are held back by a data challenges. There is a lack of geo-temporal poverty data, and thus, one of the goals of the Observatory of Poverty project is to develop new methods to produce such data. The prospective candidate will join the Lab to use these data for evaluating the effect of local development programs, using a causal-inference design.
Please email Associate Prof. Adel Daoud at adel.daoud@liu.seif you are interested for more information!
The Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School is seeking to hire a postdoctoral researcher for a two year term. The Berkeley Criminal Law & Justice Center is a hub for research, education and advocacy. Blending a data-driven approach with zealous advocacy, the center offers empirical insights into the intricacies of the legal system and policy outcomes.
The Postdoctoral Researcher will collaborate on multiple research projects related to criminal justice reform and work under the supervision of Director Chesa Boudin and the center’s faculty advisory board. Responsibilities include securing and cleaning data, performing analyses, supervising student research assistants, and writing up and presenting results to both multidisciplinary academic and policy audiences. The primary research project is a natural language processing examination of bias in news coverage of criminal justice issues in the Bay Area in partnership with Professor David Harding (sociology).
Applicants should email a cover letter, list of references, writing sample, and CV to cljc@berkeley.edu by Feb 26th!
UC Libraries and their partners are collaborating on another UC-wide “Love Data Week” from February 12-16, 2024. This will be a jam-packed week of talks, presentations, and workshops all about data! All members of the UC community are invited to attend these events to gain hands-on experience, learn about resources, and engage in discussions about data. All events are free to attend and open to any member of the UC community.
With over 20 presentations and workshops, whether you’re working on qualitative or quantitative data, there’s plenty to choose from. Topics include:
Wikipedia is among the most visited websites in the world; it is routinely cited in scholarly articles, the news, and congressional hearings. But Wikipedia openly admits its content is skewed by the gender and racial imbalance of its editors. You can be part of the solution! Join us on Zoom for a tutorial for the beginner Wikipedian, then edit some Wikipedia entries yourself.
Sign up for a free Wikipedia account in advance (optional). You may bring topic ideas or articles you’d like to edit, or we’ll help you find a way to make a difference in an area of interest to you. For more reasons to use this unique resource, check out this blog post!
This month we're welcoming guests from UC Berkeley's Parking & Transportation Mobility Equity Committee (MEC)! The MEC works with the main Class Pass Advisory Committee and also addresses other, non-AC Transit related matters which impact the campus: BART Discounts, Shared Micro-mobility, Seamless Bay Area and MTC related Fare Integration, and additional items to help bridge the gaps of access and mobility. We'll learn more about the long-range/equity planning that the MEC is currently working on and hear about how mapping fits into their work.
The GIS & Mapping Community of Practice is an informal meetup that offers participants an opportunity to get to know other people using mapping tools and techniques across campus, regardless of discipline. Whether you're just getting started exploring GIS & Mapping or a seasoned pro (or anywhere in between!), all are welcome to participate in the GIS & Mapping Community of Practice. Bring your questions and get excited to meet fellow mappers! The co-organizers for 2023-24 are Alex Brown, Tyler Marino, and Susan Powell.
Beyond Academia is a non-profit organization run by UC Berkeley graduate students with the goal of empowering PhDs and postdocs to expand their career options beyond the traditional academic track.
Join us for the 12th annual Beyond Academia Conference! Designed for graduate students, postdocs, and professionals contemplating jobs outside the professoriate, this conference aims to equip you with the skills, insights, and connections needed to launch your non-academic career. This conference is virtual and free! Our keynote speakers will be Nick Edwards from the Allen Institute for AI and Katina Rogers from Inkcap Consulting.
Coming in 2024, California Research Bureau is launching CRB Nexus: Where Policy Meets Research! CRB Nexus is a community of practice for policy staff and researchers across California to initiate and build relationships, share policy needs and solutions, and find ways to move those ideas into action to benefit all Californians.
Together with co-hosts UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies and UC Irvine School of Social Ecology, CRB Nexus will host 9 virtual events in 2024 featuring partner-recommended researchers by policy area.
The mission of the California Research Bureau is to provide nonpartisan and confidential public policy research for the Governor’s Office and the State Legislature and to advance equitable access via statewide initiatives.
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