Data & Discovery schedule and agenda details

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Presented by Nevada Bioinformatics Center and NV INBRE Data Science Core.

Python has become one of the most widely used programming languages for scientific computing, data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence. This hands-on workshop provides a practical introduction to using Python for exploring, processing and visualizing research data.

Using Google Colab, participants will learn how to work with datasets in an interactive notebook environment without installing any software. Through guided examples, participants will import, explore, summarize and visualize real-world datasets while learning the essential Python concepts needed for data analysis.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Navigate and use Google Colab notebooks
• Understand the Python fundamentals needed for data analysis
• Import, explore and manipulate tabular datasets using pandas
• Calculate basic summary statistics and explore data patterns
• Create simple visualizations to communicate and better understand data

Prerequisites

• A Google account to access Google Colab
• A Windows, macOS or Linux laptop (tablets are not recommended)

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Presented by the IBM team.

9:30-11 a.m. | IBM Bob + Data Science

See how IBM Bob can turn your data into an interactive prediction dashboard – making insights easier to explore, understand and use.

11-11:30 a.m. | Meet & Greet

Take a break to connect with fellow attendees, exchange ideas, and expand your professional network.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | AI Agents on watsonx Orchestrate

Discover how AI agents in watsonx Orchestrate can automate workflows, coordinate tasks and help organizations work more efficiently.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Presented by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) team.

9:30-10:30 a.m. | AWS Glue + Amazon S3: Hands-on data workshop

Get hands-on with AWS Glue and Amazon S3 to build ETL pipelines, store and organize your data, and clean messy datasets for analysis – no infrastructure management required.

10:30-11:30 a.m. | Talk to AWS

Connect with the AWS team, ask questions and discuss how cloud services can support your research, teaching or projects.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Amazon Quick – Your Intelligent AI Assistant

Discover how Amazon Quick uses AI to help you work more efficiently by synthesizing meeting notes, surfacing insights and helping you get more value from your data and documents.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Lemonade and coffee will be served.

Presenters

Juli Petereit, director, Nevada Bioinformatics Center and Nevada INBRE Data Science Core

Juli Petereit, Ph.D., partners with researchers to transform complex biological data into meaningful scientific discoveries through bioinformatics, computational biology and biostatistics. Passionate about collaboration and scientific training, she founded and organizes the annual Data Science Conference at the University of Nevada, Reno, bringing together academia, industry and government to advance data-driven research.

Mridul Gautam, senior vice president for research and innovation and professor, mechanical engineering, University of Nevada, Reno

Mridul Gautam, Ph.D., leads the University's research enterprise and innovation strategy. His work focuses on growing research excellence, strengthening interdisciplinary partnerships, supporting faculty and student success, and translating discoveries into solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

James H. Elder, Ph.D. is a professor and York research chair in human and computer vision at York University, with appointments in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Psychology. He also serves as director of the Centre for AI & Society. His research focuses on advancing machine vision by drawing inspiration from the remarkable capabilities of biological vision.

15-minute break.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Presenters

Andrew Hsu, computer science and biology undergraduate student, University of Nevada, Reno
Effect of Gene Duplication on Tissue Expression Divergence

The proposed study aims to investigate whether gene duplication events are often followed by accelerated divergence in tissue expression patterns, and to elucidate their effects on parental and daughter copies. We will compare the expression patterns of non-duplicated and duplicated genes in humans and mice to determine whether there are significant differences in the evolutionary rates of their expression patterns. Our results show that gene duplication accelerates tissue expression divergence, and daughter copies experience it at a higher rate than parental copies.

Steve Frese, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Nutrition, College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, University of Nevada, Reno
Hidden order in human microbiomes: a global view of early life development

Microbiomes shape human health from the earliest stages of life, yet the ecological and evolutionary ‘rules’ that govern microbial communities in early life are poorly resolved. We built a global dataset of maternal and infant microbiomes and applied machine learning to understand the origins of microbes and how they vary across body sites. We identified a clear ecological structure, distinct community functions, and relevant microbial adaptations within these microbiomes that distinguish ‘true’ inhabitants of these communities.

Peter Leonard, Ph.D., manager, Library Systems and Digital Services, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno
Image and context: Integrating archival metadata into VLM accessibility captioning

This talk explores how library and museum metadata can be integrated into image captioning workflows for cultural heritage photographs. Using open-weight vision–language models, we condition image description on both raster pixels and textual metadata stewarded by information professionals. This can help counter known problems with VLMs, including presentism and uneven cultural knowledge.

Jeongwon (JP) Park, Ph.D., professor, Department of Electrical & Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno
Data Science in Brain-Computer Interface: Ensembles Code for Associative Learning in the Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

This talk presents recent advances in data science for neuromorphic computing and biomedical applications, highlighting the integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural data analytics to better understand brain function and neurological disorders. Topics include brain-computer interfaces, ensemble coding for associative learning in the primate lateral prefrontal cortex, deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, and predictive modeling of Parkinson's disease progression using RNA sequencing data with densely connected deep recurrent neural networks. Together, these examples demonstrate how data-driven computational approaches are advancing neuroscience research, enabling precision medicine, and accelerating the development of next-generation intelligent healthcare technologies.

Blaise Manga Enuh, Ph.D., research associate, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Reproducible Techniques for Handling Messy Tabular Data

Imagine spending days to weeks crafting the right statistical analysis, only to discover that a spreadsheet’s automatic type guessing corrupted your input, turning critical sample Ids/labels into meaningless symbols. This is a reality that has forced the scientific community to rename thousands of genes after researchers realized Excel had misinterpreted gene symbols like "SEPT2" as September 2nd, invalidating years of published work. To prevent such incidents, we discuss a more rigorous framework for treating data loading as a verifiable scientific step leveraging explicit schema contracts, columnar formats, and AI-assisted validation to ensure data is more trustworthy and the analysis remains reproducible.

Franco Biondi, Ph.D., professor of ecoclimatology/tree rings, Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Science, College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, University of Nevada, Reno
Old trees and wood tales for a complex world

Understanding ecological systems and processes, including wildfires, requires a deep historical perspective. Old trees provide information on past disturbance regimes, but tree-ring data are deceptively simple unless their analysis is extended to wood growth at the cellular level.

Alireza Tavakkoli, Ph.D., professor and director of BRAIN Core, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno
Human–Machine Perception Across Medicine, Space, and the Environment

Data science becomes scientifically transformative when it connects sensing, representation, machine inference, human perception, and action.

Andrey Sarantsev, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno
Financial Simulator

Financial research showed that we can model major asset classes (S&P 500, International stocks, Corporate bonds) using multivariate Markov time series models with Gaussian innovations. Our models pass common statistical tests. This is very useful for financial practitioners: Savers, investors, retirees and endowments.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Appetizers will be served.

Posters

Nevada Nurse Workforce Atlas: Mapping Where Nurses Are Licensed, Work, and Are Educated
Authors: Haley Rowe, Thomas Dilts, Sheryl Bennett

Antimicrobial Effects of Natural Phenolic Compounds and Common Preservatives on Gram Positive Bacteria
Authors: Cristina Gonzalez, Amber Howerton

Effect of Gene Duplication on Tissue Expression Divergence
Andrew Hsu, David Alvarez-Ponce

Can We Measure the AI Improvements We Report in Medical Imaging?
Authors: Rich White Jr., Frederick C. Harris Jr., Ankita Shukla

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Flash introductions from campus resources and partner research support units.

• Animal Resources
• Bridge to Research in AI and Neurocomputing Core
• GIS/Geospatial Resources
• Nevada Bioinformatics Center
• Nevada Center for Surveys, Evaluation and Statistics
• Nevada INBRE Data Science Core
• Research Computing
• Research Data Services
• ScholarWolf/Dryad
• IBM
• Amazon Web Services
• Women in Data Science

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Breakfast will be served.

• Animal Resources
• Bridge to Research in AI and Neurocomputing Core
• GIS/Geospatial Resources
• Nevada Bioinformatics Center
• Nevada Center for Surveys, Evaluation and Statistics
• Nevada INBRE Data Science Core
• Research Computing
• Research Data Services
• ScholarWolf/Dryad
• IBM
• Amazon Web Services
• Women in Data Science

15-minute break.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Angelica Lo Duca, Ph.D., is a researcher at the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council in Italy and an adjunct professor of data journalism at the University of Pisa. Her research focuses on data storytelling, artificial intelligence and data-driven decision support. She has authored more than 60 scientific publications and several books on data science and analytics, including Comet for Data Science, Learning and Operating Presto, Data Storytelling with Altair and AI, and Become a Great Data Storyteller. Through her research, teaching and writing she helps bridge the gap between complex data and meaningful, accessible communication.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Lunch will be served.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Ankita Shukla, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of artificial intelligence, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno. Her research develops reliable and interpretable AI methods for visual, multimodal and scientific data, combining deep learning with geometry-driven approaches. Her work spans AI for science and social good, with applications in wildlife conservation and human health. She currently leads research focused on developing safer and more reliable medical AI for applications including cancer diagnosis, medical text and sleep disorders.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Panelists

Jinsong Chen, Ph.D., assistant professor, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno

Jacquie Cheun-Jensen, Ph.D., compliance and policy management officer, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine

Jennifer Kent, associate professor of practice in science communication and director of the Hitchcock Project, Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno

Ankita Shukla, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno

Peter Leonard, Ph.D., manager, Library Systems and Digital Services, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Alireza Tavakkoli, Ph.D., professor and director of BRAIN Core, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno

Sushil Louis, Ph.D., professor and director of Human-Machine Perception Lab, Computer Science & Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno

Joe Crowley Student Union, room 320, 3rd floor

This hands-on workshop introduces R programming with a focus on data analysis. Participants will learn the fundamentals of R, including data import, data exploration, and introductory statistical concepts commonly used in research. No prior programming experience is required.

• Navigate the RStudio interface
• Write and execute simple R code
• Import, export and explore datasets
• Perform introductory statistical analyses (t-test and correlation)
• Create simple visualizations using base R (not ggplot2)

Prerequisites

• A MacOS, Linux, or Windows laptop; note that Surface or tablets will not be sufficient
• Download R and RStudio onto your laptop

Joe Crowley Student Union, Rita Laden Senate Chambers, 3rd floor

Kate Dunkelberger, Research Development Manager
Research & Proposal Development Services, Research & Innovation, University of Nevada, Reno

Federal and non-federal funders increasingly prioritize training and workforce development as core to their missions rather than as an afterthought to research funding. If you're weighing your first training grant, wondering how to include a training component in your next project, or excited to expand student opportunities in your field, join us to learn more. In this interactive workshop, we will discuss why these awards and supplements are worth pursuing and provide an overview of the funding landscape, including NSF STEM Education, REU and NRT programs; NIH's SEPA, R25, and T32 institutional training grants; administrative supplements; and other federal and non-federal programs. We'll cover the practical mechanics of building a competitive proposal and candidly discuss with University PIs what it means to lead a training grant. The career upside is real: mentoring capacity, leadership visibility, interdisciplinary collaboration. So are the costs: the time to coordinate the institutional support and resources you'll need to pull it off.

Joe Crowley Student Union, room 422

Lily Mauk, Undergraduate Research; Nevada IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)

Share your research results with a wider audience! NSURJ is a digitally published statewide undergraduate research journal run by students, for students. At this workshop, you’ll learn about preparing a research manuscript for publication, the peer review process, how to find, select, and submit your manuscripts to journals of interest (including NSURJ), grant opportunities, and more.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Rita Laden Senate Chambers, 3rd floor

Kate Dunkelberger, Research Development Manager
Research & Proposal Development Services, Research & Innovation, University of Nevada, Reno

Join Research & Proposal Development Services for a networking lunch to learn more about the federal funding landscape and connect with colleagues. This event is a sneak peek of what is to come in fall 2026, when Research & Proposal Development Services will host a series of cross-disciplinary networking events connecting faculty across career stages across four broad topics that align with current federal research priorities: artificial intelligence and machine learning, environmental hazards, quantum computing, and critical materials and minerals. Come prepared to participate in several informal activities that will spark conversation, hear what others are working on, and provide input on where these conversations should go as the series kicks off in fall 2026.

Joe Crowley Student Union, room 422

Teresa Schultz, Associate Professor, Scholarly Communications and Social Sciences Librarian, Universities Libraries

Open access has become a great way to help scholarship get more attention and citations – but how is it related to copyright? This workshop will go over the basics of copyright law, as well as what scholars should consider when reusing material made by others. Workshop participants will also learn about how they can make fair use decisions when reusing content and how they can make their work open access (without paying for it!).

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

Refreshments will be served.

This research symposium is a celebration of the curricular and co-curricular achievements of student researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno. The symposium highlights research, community engagement and scholarly endeavors spanning the breadth of University disciplines. Students display posters detailing their projects and discuss their work with the symposium attendees.

This is a great opportunity for students to share what they've learned with a general audience, practice presentation skills and add to their resume!

We will also have booths for the following University groups:

• Associated Students of the University of Nevada
• Honors College
• Latino Research Center
• McNair Scholars
• Nevada Medical Research Consortium
• Nevada INBRE
• Office of Undergraduate Fellowships
• Office of Community-Engaged Learning & Leadership
• University Libraries
• Undergraduate Research
• Whittell Forest & Wildlife Area

The event is co-sponsored by:

Undergraduate Research  |  Office of Community-Engaged Learning and Leadership  |  First Generation Student Center  |  Honors College  |  McNair Scholars Program  |  University Libraries.

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom and entry area, 4th floor

Meet the administration teams offering a wide range services to support your research programs and endeavors.

• Research & Innovation
  • Enterprise & Innovation
  • Environmental Health & Safety
  • Nevada Center for Applied Research
  • Project Management Services
  • Sponsored Projects
  • Research Computing
  • Research Integrity & Security
  • Research & Proposal Development Services
  • Whittell Forest & Wildlife Area and the Little Valley Research Station
• University Libraries – Data management, research services and InCites informational database

Joe Crowley Student Union, Milt Glick Ballroom, 4th floor

A catered reception for all Data & Discovery attendees. We will also be presenting the Wolf Pack Discoveries awards to undergraduate student researchers during the reception.