Unexpected events influence more than the amount of food people purchase over a weekend. Everyone is told to expect the unexpected, especially when they work in scientific fields. Often, however, people find difficulty mitigating the effect the unexpected can have on their lives.
Aaron King — Professor of Ecology, Evolution Biology and Mathematics at University of Michigan — will provide a workshop Thursday in Moscow where he will teach attendees how to interpret unexpected events in their research.
“There are a lot of people on campus that are very interested in studying the dynamics of natural systems, but one of the things we know happens most of the time is that there’s a lot of randomness to what occurs,” said Benjamin Ridenhour, research assistant professor. “Aaron’s an expert in that, so hopefully he can come and give us some of his expertise on random noise that we encounter in biology and everything you do — like engineering — where you have some sort of dynamical system.”
Ridenhour is an Assistant Professor in Mathematics and the College of Science in addition to being a Research Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences and the College of Science, a member of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies and a participating faculty member at the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions.
Ridenhour studies the spread of disease and the interactions within microbiomes, which consist of the microorganisms present in a specific environment — such as bacteria in the human stomach.
“It’s going to be a good opportunity for postdocs, graduate students, undergrads, whoever to interface with someone who’s a real expert in the field,” Ridenhour said. “He’s a leader, he’s developed software to do this. We can undersell those opportunities to interact with people who are really good at what they do. (This event)’s going to be positive for people that are developing in their careers right now, to see someone who has done well.”
Ridenhour said the topic King will cover — a specialized type of modeling used to account for randomness in experiments — is hard to understand and difficult to teach. This is another reason why he encourages students to attend the workshop.
According to Ridenhour, this type of modeling — stochastic modeling — affects more than biology. He claims that natural randomness is why the stock market fluctuates the way it does. Ridenhour said he believes a basic understanding of stochastic modeling can help people understand why the stock market rises and falls, how the flu will spread on a particular year and much more.
This event is the third workshop in a series put on by University of Idaho’s Center for Modeling Complex Interactions.
The workshop, “CMCI Modeler’s Workshop with Aaron King,” will be held in IRIC 352 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 25. Participation is free but space is limited. Participants must register before Dec. 14. According to the CMCI website, participants must bring their own laptop and complete the pre-workshop preparation. Basic skills in the use of R are expected, but advanced work is not required. Lunch will be included.