Wei Wang
Associate Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Public engagement
Two issues
Communication
Computation
A patient may search for
diseases with similar
symptoms
choices of treatment
expected prognoses
…
WebMD
Knowledge
&
Experience
But may not replace the role
of doctor
patient
doctor
A non-scientist’s view of scientific data may be very different
Often carry a partial view
Scientist
General public
Communication between scientist and general public
How to better collect/interpret/use scientific data
Infrastructure to facilitate such communication
Scientist
General public
Data acquisition outpaces
data analysis
Data
Data
Data
Computation becomes
a growing bottleneck
Need better infrastructure
and tools
Data
Data
Computation
Can we engage the public?
Discovery
How to make computation more enjoyable?
We’ve developed a generation
with fine-tuned reflexes
optimized to recognize
fast-changing patterns
willing to do so for
countless hours
willing to do it for FREE
Microsoft Research
Faculty Summit 2008