Title: "EyeCanDo: Eye Gaze-based Technology to Enable Communication for ALS Patients"
Lack of mobility and communication due to disability seriously limits the personal freedom of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and can lead to a low quality of life. The progressive loss of independence and connection to the world affects them and their caregivers physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. EyeCanDo, an eye gaze-based app we have been developing will enable ALS patients using a common iPad/iPhone with built-in TrueDepth camera to readily communicate, from basic needs to reading, typing and entertainment. This will significantly advance their communication and improve their quality of life.
Biosketch:
Dr. Fusheng Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of California, Los Angeles, and M.S. and B.S. in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University. His research interests cover data management and biomedical informatics, and in particular, the intersection of the two fields. His research on data management is to address the research challenges for delivering effective, scalable and expressive software systems for managing and querying complex data at multiple dimensions. His research on biomedical informatics is to develop novel methods and software systems to optimize the extraction, management, and mining of biomedical data with much improved efficiency, accuracy and interoperability to support biomedical research and the healthcare enterprise. https://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~fuswang/
Guest Speaker: Dr. Fusheng Wang, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Department of Computer Science
Title: "EyeCanDo: Eye Gaze-based Technology to Enable Communication for ALS Patients"
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: Online
Please register here.
Title: "Post Disaster Housing Stages: A Markov Chain Approach to Model Sequences and Duration Based on Social Vulnerability"
Housing recovery is an unequal and complex process presumed to occur in four stages: emergency shelter, temporary shelter, temporary housing, and permanent housing. This talk summarizes research work that questions the four-stage typology and examines how different types of shelter align with multiple housing recovery stages given different levels of social vulnerability. I will also present a Markov chain model of the post disaster housing recovery process that focuses on the experience of the household. The model predicts the sequence and timing of a household going through housing recovery, capturing households that end in either permanent housing or a fifth possible stage of failure. The probability of a household transitioning through the stages is computed using a transition probability matrix (TPM). The TPM is assembled using proposed transition probability models that vary with the social vulnerability of the household. Monte Carlo techniques are applied to demonstrate the range of sequences and timing that households experience going through the housing recovery process. A set of computational rules are established for sending a household to the fifth stage, representing a household languishing in unstable housing. This predictive model is exemplified in a virtual community, Centerville, where following a severe earthquake scenario, differences in housing recovery times exceed four years. The Centerville analysis results in nearly 5% of households languishing in unstable housing, thereby failing to reach housing recovery. Through discussion of these findings I will highlight the disparate trajectories experienced by households with different levels of social vulnerability and provide recommendations for more equitable post disaster recovery policies.
Biosketch:
Dr. Sara Hamideh is an assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences’ Sustainability Division at Stony Brook University. Her research interest is post-disaster recovery and community resilience. She has studied recovery of different housing types, public participation in recovery, vulnerable populations and public housing through quantitative longitudinal modeling and qualitative analysis of planning decisions and processes.
Dr. Hamideh is also a researcher in the Center of Excellence for Community Resilience at Colorado State University funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She has conducted longitudinal and interdisciplinary modelling of housing recovery in seasonal and year-round housing markets in tourist-based communities based on physical and social vulnerabilities. In another line of research, she looks at the role of social vulnerability and stigma in access to recovery decision making and participation in planning processes.
Dr. Hamideh has published on public housing after disasters, showing how being vulnerable implies less control and representation in decisions about one’s recovery. In the rural Midwest, she studied resilience of small towns to shrinking population, developing a new paradigm for rural smart shrinkage in a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Hamideh teaches courses in disaster resilience, sustainable communities, environmental planning, and planning analytical methods.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Sara Hamideh, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Title: "Post Disaster Housing Stages: A Markov Chain Approach to Model Sequences and Duration Based on Social Vulnerability"
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: Online
Please register here.
Title: "Photoregulation of Polymerization Processes"
This seminar will explore fundamental developments in polymer synthesis, including methods for controlling polymer dispersity and copolymer sequence. Growing evidence indicates that these parameters, dispersity and sequence, profoundly impact polymer material properties, such thermal stability and degradation profiles. Yet, methods for high-resolution control over these parameters are rare, preventing systematic correlation of polymer structure with material functions. We have developed new classes of photoswitchable initiators and catalyst systems that enable dynamic manipulation of dispersity and copolymer sequence, respectively. This work is the first demonstration of using light to deterministically control the dispersity of poly(vinyl ethers) and the sequence of poly(lactides). These results serve as a foundation for further exploring external control of polymer structure, and for accessing new polymer structures with tunable properties.
Biosketch:
Dr. Melanie Chiu is a native of San Diego, California, and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2004 with an A.B. in Chemistry. She earned her Ph.D. in 2009 as a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. She was a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich (2009–2011, ETH Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship) and Stanford University (2012–2014) before joining the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University in 2014. Dr. Chiu especially values the privilege of pursuing some of science’s biggest mysteries as a member of the Stony Brook community because of its tremendous diversity, collaborative environment, and commitment to education as an engine of social mobility. When she’s not in the chemistry lab, Melanie enjoys training for triathlons, climbing, and playing violin.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Melanie Chiu, Department of Chemistry
Title: “Photoregulation of Polymerization Processes”
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: Online
Please register here.
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