Make Me Data Literate

"one of the other things that sometimes gets said is that qualitative research is subjective because it's based on people's thoughts and perceptions And to that I guess I'd say well, you know to a degree is but I don't think there's any approach at all in research that doesn't involve subjectivity"

Taking a different tack with this episode, a wonderful chat with the remarkable Mark Stickells, AM, CEO of Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, on AI and the role of Humanities in STEM. “I fundamentally believe knowledge is a human insight. And we work with these tools that are incredibly powerful, but can be incredibly stupid.” “We… Continue reading Mark Stickells on AI & the role of Humanities in STEM

A fantastic conversation with Quantum Computing specialist and all round fascinating thinker, Dr Pascal Elahi. The worst data mistakes I’ve seen, besides let’s say using obviously biased data to prove a result you want is also usually, uh having data, and being like I’m gonna ignore the bits that contradict the answer I want to… Continue reading Pascal Elahi on Quantum Computing, the value of a broad education, and a lot more!

I might ask the same questions every time, but there’s no knowing where the conversations will go! A fabulous episode with the incredible Dr Katherine Ross. Check it out! “So I think my favorite part about data is that it is completely unpredictable. And that may also be my least favorite part about it.” “That’s… Continue reading Dr Kat Ross on Astrophysics, Bias in Science, and Including Diverse Scientists in Education

Amazing conversation with Dr Emily Kahl from Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, on everything from the need for a humanities education in STEM, the application of Marxist and Feminist Lenses to Data Science, and a whole lot more. This was an absolute delight. Check it out! “I wanted to use the tools of maths and science… Continue reading Dr Emily Kahl on pretty much everything!

A super interesting episode with Professor Darren Mansfield on sleep, data, and sleep tracking devices. “imagine if you go and run a one hour documentary on something that’s inconclusive. Here’s all the evidence for you is the evidence against and we can’t really don’t know. That’s not great television.” ” the truth is not always… Continue reading Darren Mansfield on Sleep, Data, and Sleep Tracking Devices

Dr Sarah Beecroft from Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre “it’s fun. Like you, you know, uncovering kind of the deeper insights, I think, which is quite interesting as well. You’re getting closer to the bigger story or the deeper story if you want to look at it that way. ” “you kind of need to like… Continue reading Sarah Beecroft on Bioinformatics and the joy of puzzles

Well it’s been a long time between episodes, but we’re back! And wow, have we got some amazing guests lined up. Starting off with, not so much a bang as a fast radio burst, we have Dr Sarah Pearce, Director of the SKA Low telescope. “Science is a human endeavour. And no matter how kind… Continue reading Sarah Pearce on the SKA Low

​​​​A fantastic conversation with Ray Hilton. “on its own, like data is relatively inert and doesn’t really have much value – like the value comes from what you do with it and how you interpret it. And it can obviously be interpreted in many different ways. “ “It’s not just the fact you’ve identified these people.… Continue reading Ray Hilton on AI & Deep Tech

"Every decision that we make, whether we're thinking about climate change, poverty, you know happiness, agriculture... how do we feed everyone, how do we clothe them, all of that is underpinned by data and mathematics.

"The rise of populism has been substantial across the advanced world, indeed across developing countries as well. So those of us who believe in data need to be strong proponents of the publication of those data even when it produces results that make us uncomfortable.

"We do not teach people that making mistakes is not just right, but it's the only way of learning. It's the only way of becoming better." Honestly, I want to turn this whole episode into pull quotes! Go listen!

"So like while we would never believe that if we saw a stone rolling down a mountain, that if we all just stared at it and willed it back up the hill, it would do that, we do tend to believe that if we all individually do our part for the environment or ask people to just individually act that because people want that to be so and want that to work, that it just will, we believe that if we give people more information than then somehow just spontaneously they will change their behaviour, which really is quite fanciful."

Fiona Tweedie: data governance is not a topic that gets a lot of love. people yeah switch off when they hear it, but it really is the makes a huge amount of difference to what you're able to do with data (and not just avoiding big regulator fines)

Mark Gray on technology. "people have developed a kind of implicit trust in the way that technology works. And I think partly it's because they don't actually understand how it works. And so, they just choose to trust it. I mean, I've got a lot of experience in programming. ...I would not trust a computer-driven car to not hurt me."

"Behind every business problem is a human being with some kind of need. And if we understand that, we can solve it and increasingly now every business is a data driven business, but you can't let data be the only thing you need to, we need to focus in on the human problems we're trying to solve. And that's probably one of the things that is making me really think about this AI revolution that's happening now. And a lot of people seem to be putting forward crazy solutions and not keeping the human being with a real problem and real needs in mind with their solutions."

A truly thought provoking conversation about data and accessibility with an amazing Software Engineer and Accessibility Expert & Advocate, Larene Le Gassick. "The most popular statistic that is shared about disability is that, you know, if you don't consider accessibility in the web or in mobile apps, you are excluding at least 20% of folks who might have some form of disability."

"I've gone from just not reading the media release, to not even caring what their numbers are and actually finding my own numbers. Which is always a fun thing, because you find things that you haven't looked at in the past and think 'oh, this is something new and cool.'"

RD:"Why aren't we collecting the data? Because they don't want to admit failure. They don't want to make it easy for me to tell you what the cost to GDP of this heroic approach to covid has been."