Today’s schedule was much, much quieter. We began by meeting one of Dr. Laber’s colleagues, Dr. Ana-Maria Staicu, a Romanian professor who has several degrees in the math/statistics area, who also happens to be the mother of one of my good friends from tennis tournaments. I knew she worked in some professional setting, but I had no idea she was working only two doors down from Dr. Laber – small world, huh? She introduced us to a few of her projects, including statistical analyses of marathon runners at the Olympic trials and the caloric intake of lactating pigs. One particularly interesting project she was working on related to the diseased white matter involved in multiple sclerosis (a brain disease that inhibits logical thought and motor control). After showing us multiple complex diagrams about a specific area of affected tissue, she explained that statistical algorithms could help predict future affected areas and allow the doctor to prescribe more accurate medicine. As Dr. Staicu said herself, statistics is one of the most applicable fields in the world- using data to draw conclusions helps in absolutely any field. Her obvious passion for her work was admirable, and she kept trying to get us to consider it as a college major (still not so sure). After speaking with her for a couple hours, we visited BOM to see what a different grad student was up to (we’re slowly meeting each person in the lab). Eric, a statistics major for undergrad, had hooked up several TVs to train an intelligent AI in the popular football video game Madden. He explained (in very basic terms) how each successive run would gradually increase the computer’s ability to choose the most optimal play, much like Nona, the chess robot. Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting with the team’s graphic designer, Lisa, to work with some 3D modeling software.
