The Office of the Provost has launched a series of “Research Speed Meetings” to facilitate connections among faculty and academics across units and to promote research synergies. These casual events involve brief, focused interactions among individual academics with common research interests, allowing them to quickly share their work and ideas. Topics are chosen by suggestions from the faculty, and follow-up forms of engagement can provide additional support for collaborative activity.
Learn more and register for upcoming meetings below:
Interested in attending them meeting on Wednesday, March 5, from 3:30–5:00 p.m. at Regenstein Library? Register here.
Colleagues’ suggested topics include the following: economic development and social mobility; housing and homelessness; education and STEM education; environment and health effects; crime and violence; digital divide and digital infrastructure; chronic health conditions; and mental and health trauma.
Co-sponsors:
- Christopher Berry (Harris School of Public Policy)
- Nick Feamster (Department of Computer Science)
- Elbert Huang (Department of Medicine)
- Doriane C Miller (Department of Medicine)
- Elisabeth J. Moyer (Department of Geophysical Sciences)
- Mary Beth Pudup (Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization)
- Selwyn Rogers (Department of Surgery)
- Gina Miranda Samuels (Crown Family School)
- Jennifer Scappettone (Department of English)
- Sabina Shaikh (Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization)
- Anna Volerman Beaser (Department of Medicine)
Colleagues’ suggested topics included the following: brain health, brain imaging, neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury, advancing understanding of neural circuits in human perception and action, the intersection of physical and materials sciences and philosophy with neuroscience, the formation of knowledge across disciplines, and the uses and future of psychedelic drugs.
Co-sponsors:
- Francesca Farina (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology)
- David Freedman (Department of Neurobiology)
- Christian Hansel (Department of Neurobiology)
- Narayanan Kasthuri (Department of Neurobiology)
- Adam Martersteck (Department of Neurology)
- John Maunsell (Director of the UChicago Neuroscience Institute)
- Emily Rogalski (Department of Neurology)
- Susan Rowell (Department of Surgery)
- Harriet de Wit (Department of Psychiatry)
- Jai Yu (Department of Psychology)
- Zhuzhu Zhang (Department of Human Genetics)
Colleagues’ suggested topics included the following: income inequality, discrimination in lending, urban poverty and public policy, guaranteed income, housing insecurity, conceptualizing and measuring economic need and deprivation beyond income, and environmental justice.
Co-sponsors:
- Marianne Bertrand (Booth School of Business)
- Christopher Blattman (Harris School of Public Policy)
- Steven Durlauf (Harris School of Public Policy)
- Amber Ginsburg (Department of Visual Arts)
- Julia Henly (Crown Family School)
- Kathryn Keenan (Department of Psychiatry)
- Bruce Meyer (Harris School of Public Policy)
- Jennifer Scappettone (Department of English Language and Literature)
- Maggie Thomas (Crown Family School)
- Geoffrey Wodtke (Department of Sociology)
- Alan Yu (Department of Linguistics)
Colleagues’ suggested topics included the following: trust in AI and the process for and consequences of building (un)trustworthy AI systems; AI for cultural, linguistic, and literary data analysis; the intersection of AI and creativity, economics, surveillance, and radiology; the use of large language models for personalized medicine; deep learning in DNA modeling.
The 44 attendees for the Artificial Intelligence group came from 28 different departments.
Co-sponsors:
- Bryon Aragam (Booth)
- Ran Blekham (Medicine)
- Mark Downie (Cinema and Media Studies)
- Michael Franklin (Computer Science)
- Maryellen Giger (Radiology)
- Daniel Ginat (Radiology)
- Clovis Gladstone (Romance Languages & Literatures)
- Fernando Goldenberg (Neurology)
- Christos Lazaridis (Neurology)
- Bo Li (Computer Science)
- Hoyt Long (East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
- Ali Mansour (Neurology)
- David Miller (Physics)
- William Roth (Neurology)
- Mehrnoush Soroush (Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures)
- Chenhao Tan (Computer Science)
- Jeffrey Tharsen (Forum on Digital Culture)
- Haifeng Xu (Computer Science)
Colleagues’ suggested topics included the following: community engaged research on health disparities; ethnic and racial, maternal, and age-related health disparities; the intersection of health disparities with linguistics, climate change, and the social environment; mental health; disability.
The 22 attendees for the Health Disparities group came from 14 different departments.
Co-sponsers:
- Yoonsun Choi (Crown)
- Gini Fleming (Medicine)
- Elbert Huang (Medicine)
- Leslie M. Kay (Psychology)
- Zhiying Ma (Crown)
- Jeanne Marsh (Crown)
- Aresha Martinez-Cardoso (Public Health Sciences)
- Laura McGuinn (Family Medicine)
- Sharmilee Nyenhuis (Pediatrics)
- Jaeyoung Park (Booth)
- Hena Patel (Medicine)
- Jay Pinto (Surgery)
- Jeffrey Stepan (Orthopaedic Surgery)
- Jenny Trinitapoli (Sociology)
- Jasmin Trio (Public Health Sciences)
- Ming Xiang (Linguistics)
- Alan Yu (Linguistics)
Do you have suggestions about future topics? Fill out this form.
Additional Resources and Support
The Office of the Provost offers support for small groups of Research Speed Meeting attendees to continue their connections and consider next steps, including the following: logistical support as any groups develop, an initial consultation with a communications expert, proposal development assistance for interdisciplinary/cross-divisional proposals, strategic intelligence reports on the funding landscape and competitors within a particular topic, and help identifying potential funding opportunities and program officers to target (with a 1-5 year timeline) as well as potential partners and/or existing programs to leverage. Contact Jon Trotter for more information.