About this podcast
The Data Skeptic Podcast features interviews and discussion of topics related to data science, statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the like, all from the perspective of applying critical thinking and the scientific method to evaluate the veracity of claims and efficacy of approaches.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 613 episodes
- Working in Extended Reality · 39 minDoug Bowman, Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, joins Kyle to explore how augmented reality, virtual reality, and AI are reshaping the future of human-computer…
- TastePrint · 26 minWhat if we could 3D print food with customized flavors and textures? Yamato Miyatake joins us to explore how digital food fabrication, human-computer interaction, and AI could…
- Gestures Around the Ear · 30 minThe next evolution of wearable technology may not require new screens or controllers, but new ways to interact with the devices we already wear. Shimon explores how…
- Implicit Interactions · 45 minHow do we design robots and autonomous vehicles that understand the unwritten rules of human behavior? Kyle speaks with Cornell Tech professor Wendy Ju about implicit…
- The Lived Informatics Model · 34 minThe data we collect about ourselves can tell us a lot—but only if the technology collecting it actually fits into our lives. Daniel Epstein explores personal informatics, from…
- Recommender Systems Today and Tomorrow · 23 minIn the final episode of our Recommender Systems season, we explore the growing questions of trust, manipulation, privacy, fairness, sustainability, and user control. From fake…
- Recommender Systems Optimization Goals · 31 minIn part two of the Data Skeptic Recommender Systems season finale, Kyle asks a deceptively difficult question: what should recommender systems actually optimize for? Drawing on…
- Recommender Systems Origin Story · 26 minWhere did recommender systems come from, and how do we know when they're actually working? In part one of Data Skeptic's three-part Recommender Systems finale, Kyle traces the…
- Social Choice for Fair Recommendations · 43 minRecommender systems influence nearly every aspect of our digital lives—but what does it mean for those systems to be fair? Robin Burke joins Data Skeptic to discuss the history…
- News Recommendations · 46 minNews recommendation algorithms influence far more than what stories we click—they can shape our understanding of the world. In this episode, Kyle Polich speaks with Andreea Iana…
- Give Users the Wheel · 35 minWhat if you could simply tell a recommendation system what you want instead of relying on likes, dislikes, and watch history? Kyle Polich talks with Fuyuan Lyu about the DPR…
- AutoLike · 35 minHow can researchers audit recommendation systems when the algorithms are hidden from view? Hieu Le joins Kyle Polich to discuss Auto-Like, a reinforcement learning framework that…
- Student Spotlight: Aaron Payne, Data Analyst · 26 minAaron Payne, an MBA student at Georgia Tech studying business analytics and a Senior Insights Analyst at Chick-fil-A, joins Kyle Polich to talk about turning analytics into…
- The Future is Agentic in Recommender Systems · 49 minKyle Polich sits down with Yashar Deldjoo, research scientist and Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Bari, to explore how recommender systems have evolved and…
- Book Ratings and Recommendations · 39 minGoodreads star ratings can be misleading as measures of "book quality," and research from Hannes Rosenbusch suggests that for many professionally published books, differences…
- Disentanglement and Interpretability in Recommender Systems · 31 minErvin Dervishaj, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, discusses his research on disentangled representation learning in recommender systems, finding that while…
- Collective Altruism in Recommender Systems · 55 minEkaterina (Kat) Fedorova from MIT EECS joins us to discuss strategic learning in recommender systems—what happens when users collectively coordinate to game recommendation…
- Niche vs Mainstream · 34 minAnas Buhayh discusses multi-stakeholder fairness in recommender systems and the S'mores framework—a simulation allowing users to choose between mainstream and niche algorithms…
- Healthy Friction in Job Recommender Systems · 27 minIn this episode, host Kyle Polich speaks with Roan Schellingerhout, a fourth-year PhD student at Maastricht University, about explainable multi-stakeholder recommender systems…
- Fairness in PCA-Based Recommenders · 50 minIn this episode, we explore the fascinating world of recommender systems and algorithmic fairness with David Liu, Assistant Research Professor at Cornell University's Center for…
- Video Recommendations in Industry · 38 minIn this episode, Kyle Polich sits down with Cory Zechmann, a content curator working in streaming television with 16 years of experience running the music blog "Silence Nogood."…
- Eye Tracking in Recommender Systems · 52 minIn this episode, Santiago de Leon takes us deep into the world of eye tracking and its revolutionary applications in recommender systems. As a researcher at the Kempelin…
- Cracking the Cold Start Problem · 40 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic, we dive deep into the technical foundations of building modern recommender systems. Unlike traditional machine learning classification problems…
- Designing Recommender Systems for Digital Humanities · 37 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic, we explore the fascinating intersection of recommender systems and digital humanities with guest Florian Atzenhofer-Baumgartner, a PhD student at…
- DataRec Library for Reproducible in Recommend Systems · 33 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic's Recommender Systems series, host Kyle Polich explores DataRec, a new Python library designed to bring reproducibility and standardization to…
- Shilling Attacks on Recommender Systems · 35 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic's Recommender Systems series, Kyle sits down with Aditya Chichani, a senior machine learning engineer at Walmart, to explore the darker side of…
- Music Playlist Recommendations · 52 minIn this episode, Rebecca Salganik, a PhD student at the University of Rochester with a background in vocal performance and composition, discusses her research on fairness in…
- Bypassing the Popularity Bias · 35 min
- Sustainable Recommender Systems for Tourism · 38 minIn this episode, we speak with Ashmi Banerjee, a doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, about her pioneering research on AI-powered recommender systems in…
- Interpretable Real Estate Recommendations · 33 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic's Recommender Systems series, host Kyle Polich interviews Dr. Kunal Mukherjee, a postdoctoral research associate at Virginia Tech, about the paper…
- Why Am I Seeing This? · 50 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic, we explore the challenges of studying social media recommender systems when exposure data isn't accessible. Our guests Sabrina Guidotti, Gregor…
- Eco-aware GNN Recommenders · 45 minIn this episode of Data Skeptic, we dive into eco-friendly AI with Antonio Purificato, a PhD student from Sapienza University of Rome. Antonio discusses his research on "EcoAware…
- Networks and Recommender Systems · 18 minKyle reveals the next season's topic will be "Recommender Systems". Asaf shares insights on how network science contributes to the recommender system field.
- Network of Past Guests Collaborations · 34 minKyle and Asaf discuss a project in which we link former guests of the podcast based on their co-authorship of academic papers.
- The Network Diversion Problem · 46 minIn this episode, Professor Pål Grønås Drange from the University of Bergen, introduces the field of Parameterized Complexity - a powerful framework for tackling hard…
- Complex Dynamic in Networks · 56 minIn this episode, we learn why simply analyzing the structure of a network is not enough, and how the dynamics - the actual mechanisms of interaction between components - can…
- Github Network Analysis · 37 minIn this episode we'll discuss how to use Github data as a network to extract insights about teamwork. Our guest, Gabriel Ramirez, manager of the notifications team at GitHub…
- Networks and Complexity · 18 minIn this episode, Kyle does an overview of the intersection of graph theory and computational complexity theory. In complexity theory, we are about the runtime of an algorithm…
- Graphs for Causal AI · 41 minHow to build artificial intelligence systems that understand cause and effect, moving beyond simple correlations? As we all know, correlation is not causation. "Spurious…
- Power Networks · 42 min
- Unveiling Graph Datasets · 44 min
- Network Manipulation · 41 minIn this episode we talk with Manita Pote, a PhD student at Indiana University Bloomington, specializing in online trust and safety, with a focus on detecting coordinated…
- The Small World Hypothesis · 17 minKyle discusses the history and proof for the small world hypothesis.
- Thinking in Networks · 34 minKyle asks Asaf questions about the new network science course he is now teaching. The conversation delves into topics such as contact tracing, tools for analyzing networks…
- Fraud Networks · 43 minIn this episode we talk with Bavo DC Campo, a data scientist and statistician, who shares his expertise on the intersection of actuarial science, fraud detection, and social…
- Criminal Networks · 44 minIn this episode we talk with Justin Wang Ngai Yeung, a PhD candidate at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in London, who explores how network science helps…
- Graph Bugs · 29 minIn this episode today's guest is Celine Wüst, a master's student at ETH Zurich specializing in secure and reliable systems, shares her work on automated software testing for…
- Organizational Network Analysis · 44 minIn this episode, Gabriel Petrescu, an organizational network analyst, discusses how network science can provide deep insights into organizational structures using OrgXO, a tool…
- Organizational Networks · 28 minIs it better to have your work team fully connected or sparsely connected? In this episode we'll try to answer this question and more with our guest Hiroki Sayama, a SUNY…
- Networks of the Mind · 43 minA man goes into a bar… This is the beginning of a riddle that our guest, Yoed Kennet, an assistant professor at the Technion's Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, uses to…
