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Symposium
Friday, October 9
 

9:00am PDT

Breakfast
Friday October 9, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
Wieboldt 704

Friday October 9, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
Wieboldt 704 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611

9:00am PDT

Professional Headshots (Complimentary) - Dynamic Photo Systems
Friday October 9, 2026 9:00am - 1:00pm PDT
Wieboldt 7th Floor Lounge

Friday October 9, 2026 9:00am - 1:00pm PDT
Wieboldt 7th Floor Lounge Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611

10:00am PDT

Betting Big, Starting Small: Quantum Computing's Capital and Its Classifiers
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 506
Quantum computing sits at a crossroads: extraordinary capital investment on one side, and modest near-term performance on the other. This session presents two complementary analyses that frame that tension.Choice 1 — The Cost of Belief: surveys the financial landscape of quantum computing — spending by Google, IBM, and Microsoft, federal funding commitments, and venture capital trends —...
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Speakers
avatar for Melvin Ott

Melvin Ott

President & CEO; Adjunct Professor, Melvin Ott & Associates; Northwestern University
Melvin Ott is a statistician, data scientist, and educator with more than three decades of experience spanning academic instruction, applied research, predictive modeling, and expert testimony. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor in the MS in Data Science program at Northwestern... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 506 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  AI & Data Science

10:00am PDT

Crisis, Coordination, & Adaptation: Organizational Theory in Action During Covid-19
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 517
Public organizational theories often emphasize distinct models—hierarchy, markets, networks, or human-centered management—as if any any given framework can adequately explain or guide effective government action. This session challenges that assumption through a practitioner-focused case study of Illinois’ COVID-19 response, told from the presenter’s firsthand experience inside the...
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Speakers
MF

Mollie Foust

Mollie Foust is a faculty member in Northwestern University’s Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) program, where she teaches courses on public organizational theory, public budgeting, policy, and nonprofit management. Her courses emphasize the practical application... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 517
  Career & Classroom

10:00am PDT

Machine Learning for Early Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease Progression Using Multimodal ADNI Data
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 711
Alzheimer’s Disease is projected to affect over 139 million people worldwide by 2050, yet mostpatients are diagnosed after significant brain changes have already occurred. Early detectionexpands treatment options, supports family planning, and reduces caregiver burden, butcurrent diagnostic pathways remain inconsistent, expensive, and frequently late.This thesis evaluates whether machine...
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Speakers
avatar for Warda Saeed

Warda Saeed

Principal Data Strategist, Neurosciences Data and Analytics, Eli Lilly and Company
Warda Syeda Saeed is an MS in Data Science student at Northwestern University and a Principal Data Strategist in Neurosciences Data and Analytics at Eli Lilly and Company. Her Northwestern research explores early prediction of cognitive decline using baseline clinical and biomarker... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 711 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  Healthcare AI and Data

10:00am PDT

Transfer Mobility: The Transfer Portal, NIL, & the Reshaping of College Football Careers
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 712
College football has undergone a fundamental transformation in recent years due to two major policy changes: the introduction of the NCAA transfer portal and the emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation opportunities. Together, these reforms have created a more open and dynamic marketplace in which student-athletes can transfer between institutions with greater freedom while also...
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Speakers
avatar for Max Mitchell

Max Mitchell

Strategy Analyst/Consultant, Second Wind Pro
Max Mitchell is a sports strategy and analytics professional with experience in college athletics, NIL, roster management, and sports technology. A graduate of Clemson University and Northwestern University’s Master of Sports Administration program, he currently works with Second... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:00am - 10:40am PDT
Wieboldt 712
  Sports

10:50am PDT

Community-Based Participatory Research: Tools & Techniques Using AI & Data
Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 506
This presentation examines the core principles of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and demonstrates how artificial intelligence (AI) and data science methodologies can be integrated to support collaborative, ethical, and policy relevant research. CBPR provides a systematic framework for addressing complex social and policy challenges (e.g., education, environmental conditions, health,...
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Speakers
avatar for Andy Sharma

Andy Sharma

Andy Sharma is a political economist whose specialty areas include health policy, population health, and quantitative methods. Sharma is a former recipient of the Carolina Population Center Fellowship with training grants from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 506 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  AI & Data Science

10:50am PDT

Built to Compete: What You're Pretending Not To Know About Your Own Next Move
Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 517
Most of us aren’t stuck because we don’t know what to do next. We’re stuck because the next move requires us to leave something comfortable behind. This session explores what keeps us waiting, how expectations and the need for certainty get in our way, and what it looks like to stop waiting for permission and start taking ownership of what comes next.cy to illustrate how CBPR and AI can be...
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Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 517
  Career & Classroom

10:50am PDT

Comparative Accuracy of Reasoning v. Non Reasoning Models for CPT Coding Assignments
Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 711
Does ‘thinking’ make a language model a better medical coder? We ran three frontier LLMs (Claude Opus 4.5, GPT-5.2, Gemini 3) across orthopedic operative notes, with and without reasoning. Come see the accuracy, consistency, cost tradeoffs of LLM assisted medical coding against surgeon-defined benchmarks. 
Speakers
avatar for Abdalrahman Katranji

Abdalrahman Katranji

Founder, Simplify AI
avatar for Apoorv Saraogee

Apoorv Saraogee

Product Engineer, Simplify AI
Apoorv and Abdal are both June 2026 graduates of the MS in Data Science program. Abdal is the founder of Simplify AI building AI medical scribe and coding tools for clinical practices. Simplify AI drafts clinical notes from patient encounters and supports real-time translation... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 10:50am - 11:30am PDT
Wieboldt 711 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  Healthcare AI and Data

11:40am PDT

AI Panel
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 506
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems are rapidly being integrated into healthcare workflows, including clinical decision support, claims processing, and patient engagement. However, real-world deployments reveal a critical gap: systems that perform well in controlled environments often fail in production due to subtle yet high-impact risks. These include exposure of Protected Health...
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Moderators
AA

Abid Ali

Assistant Professor, Northwestern SPS
Speakers
MP
FB
BI
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 506 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  AI & Data Science

11:40am PDT

Teaching Storytelling in the Age of AI: Reimagining Media Literacy Through Documentary Filmmaking
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 517
As artificial intelligence and algorithm-driven platforms rapidly reshape communication, education, and culture, media literacy education must evolve beyond traditional approaches focused solely on content consumption and analysis. This session explores documentary storytelling as an interdisciplinary information design framework for developing critical thinking, communication, and digital...
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Speakers
CE

Courtney Edwards

Courtney Nicole Edwards is an award-winning producer, director, and learning experience designer whose work lives at the intersection of documentary storytelling, media literacy, and digital culture. With over a decade of experience across television, branded content, and education... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 517
  Career & Classroom

11:40am PDT

When Healthcare AI Fails: Strengthening RAG Pipelines Against PHI Exposure, Hallucinations, and Compliance Risks
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 711
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems are rapidly being integrated into healthcare workflows, including clinical decision support, claims processing, and patient engagement. However, real-world deployments reveal a critical gap: systems that perform well in controlled environments often fail in production due to subtle yet high-impact risks. These include exposure of Protected Health...
See More →
Speakers
avatar for Avik Datta

Avik Datta

Lead Data Engineer, Sun Life Financial
Avik is a Lead Data Engineer at Sun Life Financial bringing 14 years of hands-on expertise across legacy ETL technologies and modern cloud platforms — including Informatica Cloud, Snowflake  and AWS. His work centers on practical enterprise data engineering: modernizing... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 11:40am - 12:20pm PDT
Wieboldt 711 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  Healthcare AI and Data

1:30pm PDT

World Model Reinforcement Learning for Industrial Optimization
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 506
This presentation explores how modern data science methods can be used to support industrial process optimization, with a focus on applying world-model reinforcement learning to a fractionation-style process. Many industrial systems are nonlinear, dynamic, and highly interactive: a change to one controller or operating variable may influence temperatures, pressures, flows, product quality, and...
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Speakers
avatar for David Van Dyke

David Van Dyke

Senior Consulting Engineer, Economics and Product Quality, CITGO Petroleum Lemont IL Refinery
David Van Dyke is an industry professional specializing in petroleum refinery economics, product quality, and process optimization. His work focuses on applying data science and artificial intelligence to practical industrial problems, with an emphasis on decision support, operational... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 506 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  AI & Data Science

1:30pm PDT

GenAI in Group Projects: Bridging Faculty Expectations & Student Realities
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 517
Group projects remain one of the most effective ways for students to apply disciplinary knowledge to authentic, collaborative challenges. The rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools has introduced new opportunities and new questions about how students work together, contribute expertise, and demonstrate learning. Join SPS instructors and graduate students for a...
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Speakers
avatar for Rachel Goc

Rachel Goc

Learning Engineer, Teaching and Learning Technologies, Northwestern University
Rachel Goc, PhD, is a Learning Engineer in Teaching & Learning Technologies at Northwestern University. Her role includes supporting faculty in using the Learning Management System (Canvas) and other technology tools and partnering with faculty in instructional design projects. She... Read More →
avatar for Mark Schumacher

Mark Schumacher

Faculty, Northwestern SPS
Mark Schumacher teaches in Northwestern University's Master of Science in Data Science program, where he has the unique perspective of having experienced group projects as both a student and an instructor. After a career spanning corporate finance, analytics, and innovation leadership... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 517
  Career & Classroom

1:30pm PDT

Evaluating Sequencing and Tokenization Strategies for EHR Foundation Models
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 711
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provide a rich, longitudinal view of patient health, but their high dimensionality, irregular temporal structure, and heterogeneous data types present significant challenges for machine learning. Transformer-based foundation models offer a promising approach by representing patient histories as sequences of clinical events. However, key design decisions, such as...
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Speakers
avatar for Maddie Stapulionis

Maddie Stapulionis

Data Scientist II, Cleveland Clinic
Maddie Stapulionis is a healthcare data scientist specializing in machine learning and predictive modeling. At Cleveland Clinic she works in the Artificial Intelligence department, developing models that leverage electronic health record data to improve patient outcomes and support... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm PDT
Wieboldt 711 Kellogg Wieboldt Hall, 340 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611
  Healthcare AI and Data
 
Symposium
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Friday, October 9
Wieboldt 506
Wieboldt 517
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Wieboldt 7th Floor Lounge
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