2022 Reading List
Forgot to post my reading list from last year! I can’t tell you the number of times I can’t tell you the number of times I will start reading a book, and make it all the way through the intro or first chapter to discover that yes, I’ve read it before. So these lists are helpful, not only to discover personal reading trends and figure out what to read next, but to keep me from rereading the same things over and over.
2022 had lots of great books about history, science fiction, music, social justice, essays – and of course, FOOD! I can’t stop reading cooking memoirs and similar books because of how differently people remember specific dishes and how they are tied to memories (also a lot of them contain recipes too). Pretty proud of myself for averaging 4 books per month for the entire year, and I’m already making great headway on my 2023 list.
Get the full list
A Full Season of Sandwiches
The second installment of sandwiches contained secrets like how to make perfectly fluffy chickpea and herb falafels, and how to make a 100% vegetarian meatball sub that is so good your Italian friend asks for the recipe. And lots of fresh and grilled vegetables from around the Mediterranean resulted in some excellent summertime dinners. Although the “Summer of Sandwiches” extended through Fall, many of these recipes will reappear at the table in the future. Includes links to recipes and notes about how to make them vegetarian and vegan friendly.
Part 3 of 3 features 11 sandwiches from Argentina, Trinidad, and across Mexico and the United States.
Learning Data For Good
Last month the eScience Institute held the “Learning and Doing Data For Good” conference, an event for current students and alumni in university-based data for good programs, their project partners, and data science professionals. The goal was to inspire discussions and networking with others who are motivated to learn from and meet the needs of communities and people using data for change. The eScience Institute co-hosted the conference with the West Big Data Innovation Hub, the Academic Data Science Alliance, and the University of British Columbia’s Data Science Institute.
Scores of Sandwiches
The first 10 sandwiches of this delicious endeavor featured vegetarian favorites like banh mi with marinated tofu and avocado toast topped with an egg. But it also included new recipes like homemade plant-based sausages with lemongrass, green onions, ginger, and garlic for Laotian khao jee. Let’s continue the sandwich quest in a new region of the world. Includes links to recipes and notes about how to make them vegetarian and vegan.
Part 2 of 3 features 9 sandwiches from Senegal, Israel, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Greece, England, and Italy.
Summer of Sandwiches
Everybody loves sandwiches, right? Everywhere you go, there is always some local version made with whatever ingredients are on hand. They are versatile and eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Many of the most well-known creations have meat: doner kebab sandwiches, the muffaletta, chicken shawarma, a grilled Cuban. But what about the vegetarian and seafood sandwiches of the world? Includes links to recipes and notes on how to make them more vegan friendly.
Part 1 of 3 features 10 sandwiches from India, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, and Australia.
Evolving the Hackweek Model with ICESat-2 2022
The eScience Institute hosts a variety of hackweeks every year, which are designed to immerse participants in collaborative project work around a specific topic. Hackweeks try to blend elements of a hackathon, where participants work collaboratively in project teams, with tutorials on a variety of data science topics in an immersive and inclusive environment. eScience hackweeks provide a deep dive into an area of science with a focus on how data science methods and tools can be utilized to further research. For each hackweek, the program format evolves and is modified and adjusted to best suit the problem space and the user community. A great example of this process is the ICESat-2 Hackweek, which wrapped up earlier this year.
Python for Humanities: an Intro for Researchers
The eScience Institute and UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons recently co-hosted a workshop called “Python, your personal research assistant” for participants studying the humanities to explore the Python programming language and how to use it as a tool to aid in qualitative humanities work. Led by eScience Technical Education Specialist Naomi Alterman, the program encouraged students to decipher lines of Python, and learn how to make use of it to complete repetitive tasks. “I’m expecting folks to show up to the workshop with no experience with computer code,” Naomi Alterman said. “And I want them to leave with a suitable argument as to why it’s useful for them in the future.”
Continue reading “Python for Humanities: an Intro for Researchers”
Modeling & Predicting Tree Growth with Data Science
Stuart Ian Graham is a graduate student in the University of Washington’s Biology program who recently published a paper with Senior Data Science Fellow and eScience Institute Research Scientist Ariel Rokem, along with others from the University of Washington, Université de Montpellier, and University of California Los Angeles. The paper, published in the Forests journal and titled “Regularized Regression: A New Tool for Investigating and Predicting Tree Growth,” initially grew from a 2019 Winter Incubator project at eScience, which paired Graham and Rokem together to utilize data science to explore how neighboring tree species can influence one another’s growth rates in Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State.
Data Science Student Profiles: Stefan de Villiers
The University of Washington hosted the Data Science Minor Showcase several weeks ago, an event for undergraduates to explore the curriculum offered as part of the Data Science Minor program that was launched in Fall 2020. The showcase featured UW faculty outlining the new courses they have developed for the Minor, personal experiences from students who are currently enrolled in the minor, as well as smaller breakout sessions for participants to learn more about possible pathways towards data science from their areas of interest. One of the students who shared their experience with the Data Science Minor program was Stefan de Villiers, a UW senior who is majoring in Economics in addition to minoring in both Data Science and Mathematics.
2021 Reading List
Food, memories and emotions are closely linked in our brains. A taste of something can transport you to another time and place, or maybe you avoid certain foods based on past experiences or connections. In addition to cooking, I also enjoy reading about cooking because everyone approaches it in different ways: through passion, survival, nostalgia, or luck. My friend taught a culinary writing course at Portland State University recently, and many of the food memoirs I read in 2021 are included in the course reading.
Louisa Gaylord 