Biomedical Data Science Special Seminar

The Department of Biomedical Data Science invites you to a special seminar titled:

"Causal Underpinnings of Information Synthesis"

Host: James O'Malley, MS, PhD

A light lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

For a Zoom link, write to biomedical.data.science@dartmouth.edu

Modern information exists in diverse forms: traditional datasets, large-scale AI models, and accumulated human knowledge. As incremental gains from single data sources plateau, integrating and synthesizing information across these varied forms has emerged as a critical frontier in AI research. However, without careful attention to how we expand and combine data and knowledge, this synthesis risks leading us away from, rather than closer to, the truths we seek. In this talk, we examine two concrete challenges: (1) integrating “batches” of data from multiple environments and (2) detecting AI-generated or adversarially manipulated data. Both challenges fundamentally rely on causal dependencies, highlighting causality as a foundational principle underpinning information synthesis in the era of AI.

About the Speaker(s)

Bijan Mazaheri
Assistant Professor of Engineering, Dartmouth

Bijan Mazaheri is an assistant professor of engineering at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and studies issues that arise when synthesizing information from multiple datasets, modalities, and batches, with a focus on applications in information security, biology, and human health. He uses tools from theoretical computer science and statistics—including sample complexity, mixture models, and causal inference. Bijan received his undergraduate degrees in computer science and physics from Williams College, studied mathematics as a Herchel Smith Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and earned his PhD in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from Caltech. Bijan completed postdoctoral work at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and remains an affiliated researcher at the center.

Contact

For more information, contact Biomedical Data Science at biomedical.data.science@dartmouth.edu.