Shows
Counting SandBonus: Season 1 RecapAngelo begins this episode with reflections on history and what brought us to the AI Winter. Why do we need a balance between research and practice? You don’t want to rediscover what has already been discovered or settle for something that could be better if you took the time to research a bit more. In episode 4 we meet Angelo’s friend Andy Lee who talks about computer science predicting our biological age. Andy actually met Greg Fahy who talked about longevity. The study focused on injecting the thymus gland with a growth hormone that produced regeneration effects. ...2022-01-2521 min
Counting SandMachine Learning: Your Right to ExplainabilityHow do we make the next generation of machine learning models that are explainable? How do you start finding new kinds of models that might be explainable? Where do you even start thinking about that process from a research perspective?Nikos begins with a discussion on how we make decisions in general. In the scientific world, we mostly reason through statistical or cause-and-effect type scenarios. We can predict outcomes and train our models to produce the results we traditionally expect.He then discusses other early pioneers in this work, for example, back in the 70s, a...2022-01-1131 min
Counting SandRosenblatt's Perceptron: What Can Neural Networks Do For Us?In any discussion of artificial intelligence and machine learning today, artificial neural networks are bound to come up. What are artificial neural networks, how have they developed, and what are they poised to do in the future? Host Angelo Kastroulis dives into the history, compares them to biological systems that they are meant to mimic, and talks about how hard problems like this one need to be handled carefully.Angelo begins with a discussion of how biological neural networks help make our brain a powerful computer of complexity. He then talks about how artificial neural networks recruit...2021-11-3031 minCounting SandCan Computer Science Help Us Live Longer?Can computer science help us live longer? It is a complex question that requires an understanding of our anticipated lifespan and how the health of our body at this moment compares to the average person our age, what some would call calculating our biological age. What computer science stands to help with is understanding how better to pinpoint that biological age and what factors may play into holding off the aging process. Guest Andy Lee, of NeuroInitiative and Vincere Biosciences, speaks with host Angelo Kastroulis about this hard problem of predicting our biological age and potentially reversing it.2021-11-1631 minCounting SandHow Can Computer Science Improve Life?On the most recent episode, host Angelo Kastroulis made a case computer science as a potential force for good. In this continuation of the theme, he talks about why excellence is a value to strive toward and how it differs from perfection, how simplifying the question can lead to a more valuable answer, and how questions about personalized medicine point to the potential for quantum to make big improvements to life.Angelo begins with a revelation that excellence is value that he holds dear. He distinguishes “quality”—which he defines as some standard that you're measuring yourself or oth...2021-11-0232 minCounting SandCan Computer Science Make Life Better?Can computer science improve our lives? Most people who work in the field would like to think so. Host Angelo Kastroulis, CEO of the Carrera Group, considers the ways that computer science is poised to make our lives better but also introduces caveats such as bias in machine learning. Along the way he sets up future episodes’ themes—including predictive analytics, simulation, and health decision support systems—that he will dive into with more technical detail.Acknowledging that technology is neither a panacea nor a tool without downsides, Angelo starts with a review of some research on the ps...2021-10-1930 minCounting SandInspired by Archimedes...Counting SandHow much sand would it take to fill the universe? And what does this 2,000-year-old question have to do with a podcast on today’s big data challenges? In this kick-off episode of the Counting Sand podcast, host Angelo Kastroulis, CEO of Carrera Group, explains how an early research paper by Archimedes of Syracuse has much in common with his own approach to today’s big questions in data science and how the paper provides not only a metaphor for how we can meld research and practice in tackling today’s big problems but also the inspiration for the perfec...2021-10-0537 minCounting SandIntroducing Counting SandHow many grains of sand are there in the universe? To answer that hard question, Archimedes had to invent an entire number system and only then could he attempt the computation. Today’s data challenges make that look easy.On the COUNTING SAND podcast, host Angelo Kastroulis tackles the hard problem of how to make meaning of all the data available today.Every few episodes, Angelo will introduce a new theme at the heart of big data and IT infrastructure and highlight the most cutting-edge applications. Whether discussing the best designs for a complex data sy...2021-09-3001 min